Tag: Spanish

Lucky Duck – A Cartoon Story

It’s the “lucky” time of year with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner! So, it is a perfect time to use this Cartoon Story to engage your learners.

HERE is the link to the PDF

You can use this story to help students tell a short visual story aloud OR have them write what they think each box is about.

You could have students make it up in groups or with a partner and have them share with the class.

You could cut up the pictures and place them around the room and have students add a sentence below each picture on a Gallery Walk.

You could make a listening activity and mix up the pictures, then allow students to work on putting them in order according to the story they hear you tell.

Honestly, this has SO many variations! Have fun telling these LUCKY stories! Share what your students come up with in the comments!

There are also two stories with Story Scripts on my TpT store HERE if you are interested in a companion story and possible script.

I hope this helps with some ideas for teaching these required vocabulary sets and/or topics while keeping lessons focused on communication!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

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

Come Join our NEW Facebook Community!

I have created a new FB group to share new things in real time and be able to communicate with everyone! I am super excited and hope you will join me HERE. Just click the link and Join our Sra K Spanish and ESOL group!

Don’t worry! If you teach another language, I share lots of things that can be used for ANY language teacher! Hope to see you all in the group!

Happy Teaching!

-Alana

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

Get Them Talking! – A Listening/Speaking Review Activity

In the district I teach in, we have some required topics and vocabulary. This doesn’t always mix easily with the world of CI. I have found, through my work with Tina Hargaden, that it is possible to integrate required lessons/topics/vocabulary and still make lessons based in communication.

So, how do I do that? Well, one thing I do is follow the curricular framework presented in Tina’s book, Foundations. There are six cycles of instruction, and those really help me frame every lesson and keep a structure, yet still have flexibiity.

Recently, I had to teach house vocabulary. After introducing the vocabularyThis, I created THIS activity for us to do together. I incorporated a section for us to do together, a listening activity and then an interpersonal communication opportunity for students where they practice listening and speaking with a partner or group. This could also be done virtually by having students submit a video of them talking through their “casa.”

HERE is a Loom video I recorded explaining how I used this resource. Although it is in Spanish, you can absolutely put text boxes over the words (there are only a few) in your language.

I hope this helps with some ideas for teaching these required vocabulary sets and/or topics while keeping lessons focused on communication!

Happy Teaching!

Alana

Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

Winter Vocabulary Practice

I am gearing up for the first few days back from break! I know, I should be relaxing and disconnecting. I have been, I promise, but I also know I relax better when I am prepared.

So… I have been continuing with my series of Following Simple Directions worksheets. I know worksheets are NOT the preferred task, and I plan to do a lot of guided vocabulary work and story telling along with this, but, that being said, I feel like my students are better on task when there is something concrete for them to accomplish and turn in. I hope to NOT have to do this next year, but my students seem to really need the structure and to be reminded how to be in school this year.

HERE is the link to the PDF with English AND Spanish

Anyway, I hope you can find some way to use this that will benefit your students. This is just one level. The leveled versions will be up for sale on my TpT store by the end of the week.

HERE is the link to the PDF with English AND Spanish

I have also created some New Year Student Practice for Following Simple Directions for sale on my TpT store. HERE is the link to the Spanish, and HERE is the link to the English.

Happy teaching!

Follow this blog for more great, free resources! Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!

An Easy Way to Use Authentic Resources to Celebrate Culture

Happy Tuesday! I am super excited to share this with everyone! I am not sure about your teaching context, but it seems lately I am being encouraged to use more “authentic resources.” Now, I won’t get into a big pedagogical debate here (I do have thoughts about this for novice learners), but I work in a district that really pushes the use of almost exclusively authentic resources. So, I needed to work on some way to deliver authentic material, yet still offer opportunities for scaffolding. I had been to some workshops that taught different strategies that I loved, and I use the Stepping Stones Curricular Framework, but I teach three levels, so I needed something I could easily level up or level down.

I knew there had to be a way to do this and still teach cultural materials. In the Stepping Stones Curricular Framework, these fit perfectly into Cycle 2! So, I started working on a series of materials using authentic resources. I am calling them Cultura Impactante (mainly because the title uses cognates–so, it might change….) The types of resources I have compiled so far include Gente impactante (Impactful People), Lugares impactantes(Impactful Places), Celebraciones impactantes (Impactful Celebrations), Historia impactante (Impactful History) and Jóvenes impactantes (Impactful Young People).

So, how does it work? Well, honestly, use it however you think would function best in your teaching context. I will, of course, talk about how I use these.

First, I Picture Talk a series of screenshots from a short video I have found. I teach Spanish, so I looked for videos in Spanish, but this same in any language.

Next, I show them the video (like a Movie Talk as discussed in Foundations, the book by Tina Hargaden). For lower levels, I use subtitles IN SPANISH to help them understand. I do try to play it once at a normal speed and then I play it again at a .75 speed. You can do this simply by using the cog on a Youtube video.

Then, I take the same pictures I used at the beginning and write some captions that use a writing level just above that of the students. I try to hit key vocabulary, if there is any.

Finally, we end with a Write and Discuss time together.

So, here is the first one:

I hope this is helpful to you! I would love to hear any feedback you might have about this series as well! I am a firm believer that two heads are always better than one, and I know there are amazing teachers who may read this and have some ideas about how we could polish it! Let me know in the comments!

RAP Time – Read, Add and Pass…A Vocab Review Activity

It is about that time of the semester when you need a break and the kids need a break, but there is still SOOOO much to cover!

I know, lately, I have been struggling with activities that keep students’ attention. It is like these past pandemic years have shortened their ability to sit and do anything for very long.

So, here is a vocabulary review activity that can get the students working together, creating a product, and you just get to monitor! It is pretty self-explanatory. YAY! (Of course, if you have any questions, please just let me know!)

I am not sure where I adapted this idea from. I know I took from a few sources over the years and really just tweaked it until it worked for my class. I hope it can work for yours too!

HERE IS THE LINK

Happy Teaching!

Follow this blog for more great, free resources! Find me on Instagram (@SraKSpanish) and Follow my TpT store as I build more resources!