Train the Troops – Sra. K. Spanish

7 Engaging Ideas for Your 5-7 Minute Language Learning Reading Workshop

Starting a language learning class with a focused reading workshop sets the tone for an immersive and productive learning experience. For beginners, incorporating comprehensible input strategies into this brief period can greatly enhance their language acquisition journey. Here are 7 creative ideas to make the most of your 5-7 minute reading workshop time:

Picture Walk and Predictions: Kick off the workshop by displaying an image related to the reading material. Encourage students to describe what they see and make predictions about the content. This activates their prior knowledge and primes them for understanding the text.

Vocabulary Pre-teaching: Select a handful of key vocabulary words from the reading. Present these words with gestures, visuals, or simple definitions to provide context and aid comprehension. This proactive approach equips beginners with the necessary tools to tackle the text.

Read Aloud with Expression: Take turns reading a short passage from the text. Focus on expressive intonation, pausing at punctuation marks, and using gestures to convey meaning. Modeling proper pronunciation and rhythm helps students grasp the natural flow of the language.

Interactive Question Time: After reading, engage students with questions related to the content. Keep the questions simple and open-ended to encourage participation. This not only assesses comprehension but also encourages critical thinking.

Prediction Confirmation: Revisit the predictions made earlier based on the initial image. As you read the text, help students verify if their predictions were accurate or not. This interactive process reinforces their understanding and keeps them engaged.

Role Play Retelling: Divide students into pairs or small groups and assign them different roles from the reading. Have them retell the story or information from their assigned perspective. This activity promotes active engagement and a deeper understanding of the material.

Illustration Interpretation: Share a series of images that depict key events or concepts from the reading. Ask students to explain what they think is happening in each image based on their understanding of the text. This activity strengthens their comprehension and analytical skills.

Remember, the goal of the reading workshop is to create an environment where students can interact with the language in a meaningful way. These short activities provide a perfect opportunity for them to practice listening, speaking, and critical thinking skills while gradually building their language proficiency.

By implementing these comprehensible input strategies, you’re not only setting a positive tone for the class but also fostering a solid foundation for language learning success.

Do you have more ideas for engaging reading workshops? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Happy teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

Keeping them on task! “Training the Troops” Part 2

When “Training the Troops,” I often think about the things that didn’t go so well the year before and then think of a system that might help.

I began to think about my struggles in my own language learning classes. Mostly, it was keeping myself and my students on a routine and then making sure my students were able to be held responsible for their own learning. So, I made this page:

This is a page I print out. I print the correct number of pages for the number of class days that week. Students are responsible for filling out the pages every class period. If they are absent, they find a friend who has the day’s notes or they grab my copy from the front of the room (I do this in a notebook I have for each class period). Then, at the end of the week, I ask for them to turn in one day’s paper. I don’t tell them before that moment and I only give them 30 seconds to get it to my hand. Why? This motivates them to do all the days, since they never know which I will ask for, AND it doesn’t give them time to copy their friend’s paper.

For classes that are more self-motivated, I will just train them with this page the first week or so and then have them do the same thing inside their notebooks. We are a 1:1 campus, so I then have them take a pic of the page I am going to check and submit it via our LMS (we use Schoology).

I also came up with some other graphic organizers that are super general, a place to keep anchor charts made in class for reference purposes and several other generalized pages you could easily fit to your teaching style in THIS Daily Learning Log. You can get this one and the others on my TpT store OR you can join my Patreon OR my SQUAD!

You can go HERE and learn more about the squads and join today!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) , Facebook (sra k Spanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources! Become a Patron on Patreon!

Back to School… “Training the Troops” Part 1

I have decided to head back into the bilingual elementary classroom next year. I feel like, and a lot of you probably do too, this pandemic teaching has just sucked all the fun out of teaching. I started just going through the motions and not really feeling the same passion for my classes, and that isn’t fair to myself or my students.

So, I will be in a bilingual classroom this coming school year, but still creating and sharing things for world language classrooms and in English and Spanish. I have LOTS of fun things I would love to share from my almost 10 years in middle and high school. My 16 years in bilingual classrooms before that are just calling for me to come back.

In that spirit, a lot has changed in the time I have been out of elementary. LOTS! One thing is technology and my ability to use it to make some useful tools. I figured it best to start at the beginning like I do every year with my annual week of “Training the Troops.” It is that tried and true “If you fail to plan, then plan to fail.”

So, here is a simple one! In these times when we are super vigilant of student safety, I really wanted to have a set system to know where all kids are at all times. An easy way to do this is to assign kids a number. This way, if you switch classes during the day, you don’t have to switch names out. For this, I will have a small magnetic whiteboard by or on my door (depending on what they allow). On one half of the board will be some round, Dollar Store magnets with numbers on them. For me, I only need 1-25 this year (elementary has its advantages). On the other half of the whiteboard, I will have these signs:

This one in Spanish in case you need/want to use it:

So, students will just put their numbered magnet on the board before they leave the room. This way, I will always know where students are in the school. Not that I don’t keep up with them, but if we are working in small groups or I send a kid for something, I don’t want to have to wonder where they are should a situation arise.

I will be making and sharing some more training tips over the next few weeks as I get back into the swing of the new year, so come back and check them out. I will share some things I did in secondary (middle/high school) and some things I plan to do with the littles.

Happy Teaching!

Alana