I am a High School World Language Teacher of Spanish, French, ESL and Bi-lingual education with 25 years of experience teaching all levels K-University level language classes. I love teaching and always ask for new responsibilities to broaden my knowledge. I am a documentary buff so I also write movie guides on a variety of Social Studies and Health related topics in addition to World Languages. I am excited to be able to share lessons with others and welcome your feedback.
I am a High School World Language Teacher of Spanish, French, ESL and Bi-lingual education with 25 years of experience teaching all levels K-University level language classes. I love teaching and always ask for new responsibilities to broaden my knowledge. I am a documentary buff so I also write movie guides on a variety of Social Studies and Health related topics in addition to World Languages. I am excited to be able to share lessons with others and welcome your feedback.
13 slides of famous people that students can describe either orally or written in class to practice using adjectives and making agreement to gender and quantity. Could easily be adapted by changing the titles for French or German.
This is a short paragraph that students read and make decisions as to what type of verb is required, a reflexive, a reciprocal or a regular verb. They make their choice, conjugate the verb and defend their choice with a reason. Good for discussion before a quiz or as a review. Also suitable to assign as homework.
This twelve question multiple choice survey is suitable for SP II students or higher and covers all areas of the Christmas celebration, gift giving and receiving, holiday activities, family routines. Great last day of class discussion springboard since half your student's minds are already on vacation and the other half have already left. :)
This partner practice uses IR + a + place and IR + a + action to describe where various people are going and what they are going to buy. Each partner has 8 people to ask about and 8 people to answer. Students use IR and a number of different places in Spanish like panadería, mascotería, zapatería and the items that can be purchased there. This practice works best when students have learned IR or as a warm up for Spanish II. Takes about 15 minutes to complete in class.
This visual powerpoint presents basic reflexive verbs, body parts and necessary vocabulary for teaching daily routine. (toothbrush, shaving cream etc) I use it as a warm up several times a week instead of flashcards. A student can run the presentation with the class while you take attendance.
This is an excellent mini project for students of 2nd semester French I or higher to practice asking questions and taking information in French. If you have large classes I recommend assigning phone call times over a long weekend as it takes about 3 minutes per student to phone them and give them the information to complete the assessment. Parents love this project bc they can listen in on their student speaking French!
This is a quick 15 question survey in Spanish for students to discuss their summer plans. Questions are all in multiple choice format and are mostly in the future tense. This activity is suitable for Spanish II or higher and is a good way to keep kids in the language when their head is already on vacation. 10 minutes to complete, 10-15 to discuss, a good review of future tense if you are prepping them for finals, or just for fun discussion.
This worksheet can be used with any episode of EL INTERNADO if you turn on the subtitles. Heritage Learners struggle especially with words that begin with a silent H and words that contain "V" that sounds like "B". Kids track words as they view the episode.
This activity is designed for Sp II level or higher where students have had at least a basic exposure to forming regular verbs in the preterite tense. Day one can be completed in class the day before or assigned as homework. Day 2 incorporates the principles of Native American Discussion circles, where all students engage in a large group conversation about the best and the worst of past parties they have attended. You will need a "talking piece" (any object that can be safely passed around the room from student to student to control the conversation". I use this strategy frequently to encourage conversations in Spanish with my students and its very effective. Lesson will take the entire class period to run after you do your anticipatory set. Arrange chairs in advance whenever possible. Product includes template for students to complete and detailed instructions.
27 different questions in the preterite with individual instructions. Just print them, cut them apart and distribute to your class on a Monday to have them conduct a survey of their classmates about what they did over the weekend. Most of the questions are chore based, but there are a few others. After students have "questioned" classmates walking around the room, number the board and request the tally totals. Which activities were most/least popular? Easy warm up for Monday, students like that they are only asking one question and hardly realize they have answered dozens. Activity works best with a class of Spanish II or higher who has been working with regular preterite verbs and SER/IR for a while.
Students take turns teaching peers at the start of each class. They review, reflect, problem solve and define new terms while you take attendance, hand back papers and ready to begin presentation of new material. This activity places ownership for learning on the students and buys you the time you need at the start of each hour. I have been using this concept in Foreign Language classes for years successfully and recently adapted this idea to math class for one of my graduate courses. Download contains directions for how to execute Teacher of the Day and the two templates you need for terms and problem of the day. Works best for middle school math, basic algebra and geometry, but could be adapted for higher levels courses. Students enjoy leading the class and calling on their peers, once they figure it out, you will have to plan out who is the teacher so everyone gets their chance in the spotlight! Great way to get ELL students practicing their English skills in a safe situation.
This activity starts class every day, as students take charge of the warm up by asking their classmates to complete a variety of challenge questions and practices. Takes about 5-10 minutes of class time, so you can take attendance and catch up absent kids while a student leads the rest of the class. It works best with students who have at least had 1 semester of Spanish but can be used through every level as you switch up the difficulty of tenses and vocabulary. Download includes directions, blackline for students of questions and answers to complete, extra questions for mid year, and a sign up template to keep track of who is "in charge". This review actually aids in retention of material covered in Spanish I and keeps students practicing interrogatives, numbers and other useful skills every single day. A great daily review for them, while you settle in to each day's lesson!
Radioambulante.org is an online radio show that does documentary style interviews with Spanish speakers around the world, similar to the program THIS AMERICAN LIFE on NPR. The stories are often incredible, narrated by the people who have actually lived them. Stories vary in length but most run around 15-20 minutes and I use them in my Heritage Speaker Spanish classes this year to promote listening as well as give students a wide exposure to accents and styles of speaking. Each guide accompanies a partibular episode of RADIO AMBULANTE stories and I am certain that when you listen to them you will want to play them all, for your students or just for yourself. This resource would also be good for an AP level Spanish V class to practice prepping for the listening section of the test, although you may want to pause it periodically or replay it a second time to help students comprehend sustained Spanish. To access the episodes go to radioambulante.org and you can search them by title.
Radioambulante.org is an online radio show that does documentary style interviews with Spanish speakers around the world, likeTHIS AMERICAN LIFE on NPR. The stories are often incredible, narrated by the people who have actually lived them. They vary in length but most run around 15-20 minutes and I use them in my Heritage Speaker Spanish classes this year to promote listening as well as give students a wide exposure to accents and styles of speaking. Each guide accompanies a particular episode of RADIO AMBULANTE stories and I am certain that when you listen to them you will want to play them all, for your students or just for yourself. This resource would also be good for an AP level Spanish V class to practice prepping for the listening section of the test, although you may want to pause or replay it a second time to help students comprehend sustained Spanish. To access the episodes go to radioambulante.org and search by title. This one is about Hugo Chavez' personal aide.
Radioambulante.org is an online radio show that does documentary style interviews with Spanish speakers around the world, similar to the program THIS AMERICAN LIFE on NPR. The stories are often incredible, narrated by the people who have actually lived them. Stories vary in length but most run around 15-20 minutes and I use them in my Heritage Speaker Spanish classes this year to promote listening as well as give students a wide exposure to accents and styles of speaking. Each guide accompanies a partibular episode of RADIO AMBULANTE stories and I am certain that when you listen to them you will want to play them all, for your students or just for yourself. This resource would also be good for an AP level Spanish V class to practice prepping for the listening section of the test, although you may want to pause it periodically or replay it a second time to help students comprehend sustained Spanish. To access the episodes go to radioambulante.org and you can search them by title.
This is a quick partner practice activity for that chapter on school vocabulary in every textbook when you need another thing to get kids talking to each other. 12 questions about study habits and in class behaviours, students survery their partners about how often they do these things (todos los dias, a veces, nunca) Takes about 15-20 minutes to run in class and can be just small groups or you can share out the results in larger group afterwards.
A short listening practice that combines knowledge of clothing/accessory items with big numbers. Students listen as the quantities and prices are read to them and record their answers in the boxes. Practice works best with Spanish I students in their second semester as a practice for numbers up to 1000. Takes about 10 minutes to complete. Listening script is included.
This simple project works best for beginning SP I students who have completed SER, TENER and Adjective agreement. Students chose a famous person and present them to the class reading their clues. Classmates try to guess the person before they reveal their choice.
Presentations become game day as kids try to stump their classmates and earn points for their team. Project includes directions for completion, example for students, and rubric for grading.
This partner practice contains 8 questions and 8 images for each person. Students take turns asking and answering questions about items they need to perform reflexive actions. Practice takes about 15 minutes to run and is a good way to review/reinforce thematic vocabulary while practicing conjugation of reflexive verbs with the pronouns attached to the end. (Verb pair sentences) Best suited to Spanish II or higher students who have already had a few working with reflexive verbs and thematic vocabulary.
This warm up works best for students who have had at least one semester of French. Student teacher of the day leads the class through a daily warm up while you take attendance and catch up absent students. A great review activity as well as practice of verb conjugations and vocabulary, the warm up can be easily increased in difficulty as the year progresses. Activity takes 5-10 minutes to complete and download includes instructions, blackline for students to complete and a sign up template to keep track of who is "in charge".