On several of the blogs that I follow, the teachers have specifically stated that they don't use textbooks and many don't use vocabulary lists of any kind. While I have to admit, I love teaching without a textbook, and I had the freedom to do so at my previous school; however, I think it is important to recognize that many of us simply don't have that freedom at our school as extreme curriculum consistency is demanded of us. So, what to do if you have to follow a prescribed or semi-rigid curriculum that is dictated by the school, colleagues, district, state etc.? Here are some of the things that I do to appease both the prescribed curriculum, and keep my class as authentic or semi-authentic as possible.
1) I spend tons of time looking for articles, websites, and songs that coincide with the vocabulary or grammar that is being taught in the chapter.
2) I devise projects that require the students to use the prescribed grammar and vocabulary, yet give the students the freedom to choose how to complete and design their project. Note, I use projects in addition to the paper/pencil tests that are dictated by the school.
3) I try to ask questions during the speaking portion of the class that uses the vocabulary. I will admit sometimes it is hard to make the text wholly relevant, but I do my best. For example, for the health care unit, I asked my students to talk and write about an injury that they or a family member have had vs. using the textbook exercises involving fictitious characters hurting themselves.
4) I ask the students to find internet articles, songs, etc. that are relevant to the topic and I give them extra credit for bringing authentic texts into the classroom and sharing them with me. Sometimes, I will assign this as homework, and then the students will share the information that they found with each other.
5) I try to use the cultural blurbs in the chapter as the focal point, as opposed to a side-note that is hardly or barely mentioned in class. I will teach my students about the cultural aspect presented in the chapter, and then if possible look for authentic materials that both involve the focus country and the grammar or vocabulary being covered.
6) I make my students use the vocabulary words in sentences that they create on their quizzes and tests so they are not simply translating or matching, and I hold them accountable for previously learned vocabulary words.
How do you keep your class as authentic as possible while using a mandated textbook?
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta authentic texts. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta authentic texts. Mostrar todas las entradas
lunes, 6 de mayo de 2013
miércoles, 27 de febrero de 2013
5 excuses to not use Authentic Materials
What a week it has been and its only Wednesday! The students are crazy about the upcoming spring break, I am desperately trying to get all of my grading caught-up in anticipation of the break, and on top of it all, like all teachers, I am attempting to develop good lessons.
For those that read my blog, you know that I truly believe in using authentic materials in the classroom, so this post is a bit facetious, yet, I can come-up with several excuses as to why I don't always use authentic materials in the classroom (as much as I wish that I did). So here are my top 5 excuses:
1) Time time and more time- finding authentic materials and developing appropriate tasks to accompany them is well nothing short of time consuming.
2) Appropriateness- many of the materials or songs that I think teens would love have drugs, gangs, sex, or other information that I simply cannot use or show in my classroom.
3) Language level- I can't find anything that my Spanish I and II students can realistically gain from
4) I'm Tired- yep I said it. Although every language teacher that I have ever met seems to have an incredible amount of energy, even compared to our peers who teach other subjects, sometimes, I am tired.
5) Lack of Creativity- I can't think of any new task to accompany an authentic text, and if the task isn't worthwhile then neither is the text.
These are my top five excuses. What are yours? What do you do when you have no more time or energy to find the text that you want to use?
For those that read my blog, you know that I truly believe in using authentic materials in the classroom, so this post is a bit facetious, yet, I can come-up with several excuses as to why I don't always use authentic materials in the classroom (as much as I wish that I did). So here are my top 5 excuses:
1) Time time and more time- finding authentic materials and developing appropriate tasks to accompany them is well nothing short of time consuming.
2) Appropriateness- many of the materials or songs that I think teens would love have drugs, gangs, sex, or other information that I simply cannot use or show in my classroom.
3) Language level- I can't find anything that my Spanish I and II students can realistically gain from
4) I'm Tired- yep I said it. Although every language teacher that I have ever met seems to have an incredible amount of energy, even compared to our peers who teach other subjects, sometimes, I am tired.
5) Lack of Creativity- I can't think of any new task to accompany an authentic text, and if the task isn't worthwhile then neither is the text.
These are my top five excuses. What are yours? What do you do when you have no more time or energy to find the text that you want to use?
domingo, 24 de febrero de 2013
What Can They Read?
I find this time of year challenging for many reasons in my Spanish I class. The students are anxious for some sun and exercise, and they begin to lose their enthusiasm for language class, as the novelty of the material has begun to wear off. Some of them are beginning to feel frustrated by the fact that they can't speak fluently (certainly an unrealistic goal, but one that many people in the US seem to have), and others are frustrated that they still don't understand one of the topics that we have covered. To beat some of the winter blah's I try to have my students read more. Reading authentic texts both allows them to connect with the target culture, and I find that it can create some enthusiasm as the students know that they aren't reading "baby texts."
Here are some of the items that we read in my class: menus, real estate advertisements, subtitles on commercials such as car and household appliances, where students can quickly see cognates like velocidad. Other slightly more challenging reads include: riddles, tweets and facebook posts. Then, for the students who are really certain that they can't learn Spanish and never will, I will pull in articles on teen perspective from People in español and articles from National Geographic children. Hopefully even the most reluctant student is now feeling more inspired about his or her abilities.
While I know that I am still starting small, I find that students can figure-out the majority of the meaning of each of the above items, when scaffolded and encouraged. Take riddles for example, many of them actually include rather simple vocabulary and the answer is often a simple word as well!
Articles from People and National Geographic can be more challenging. I admit that I have had greatest success with the ones from National Geographic, as I can choose articles that relate to science information that the students already know. Additionally, many scientific words are cognates in English so students can often recognize the majority of the words in a passage without needing to look-up key terms.
Once my students have read an article, obviously we need to do something with it. I find that making graphs, charts, Venn diagrams, or word webs are all realistic tasks for a level one student. Sometimes, I will have the students survey their classmates as to which product they would buy, if we read advertisements. These tasks do not ask them to produce complex language structures, nor do they need tons of vocabulary.
What do you do to beat the winter blahs? What do your students read?
Here are some of the items that we read in my class: menus, real estate advertisements, subtitles on commercials such as car and household appliances, where students can quickly see cognates like velocidad. Other slightly more challenging reads include: riddles, tweets and facebook posts. Then, for the students who are really certain that they can't learn Spanish and never will, I will pull in articles on teen perspective from People in español and articles from National Geographic children. Hopefully even the most reluctant student is now feeling more inspired about his or her abilities.
While I know that I am still starting small, I find that students can figure-out the majority of the meaning of each of the above items, when scaffolded and encouraged. Take riddles for example, many of them actually include rather simple vocabulary and the answer is often a simple word as well!
Articles from People and National Geographic can be more challenging. I admit that I have had greatest success with the ones from National Geographic, as I can choose articles that relate to science information that the students already know. Additionally, many scientific words are cognates in English so students can often recognize the majority of the words in a passage without needing to look-up key terms.
Once my students have read an article, obviously we need to do something with it. I find that making graphs, charts, Venn diagrams, or word webs are all realistic tasks for a level one student. Sometimes, I will have the students survey their classmates as to which product they would buy, if we read advertisements. These tasks do not ask them to produce complex language structures, nor do they need tons of vocabulary.
What do you do to beat the winter blahs? What do your students read?
miércoles, 7 de noviembre de 2012
authentic listening en 60 segundos
Many Spanish teachers that I have worked with lament the difficulty of using authentic listening texts. While I agree that listening texts can be difficult to find and unpredictable in terms of quality once they have been found, one of my favorite listening activities is to use el boletín: noticias en 60 segundos by bbcmundo.com The boletín can often be found on the home page of bbcmundo.com, but if it is not there, choose the video/foto tab at the top of the screen and it will appear on that page. The best thing about the boletín is that you can sign up to have it sent directly to your inbox.
To me, the boletín is perfect because it presents a bunch of information in an extremely short time period. Additionally, it is short enough that it can be played numerous times without having to cut something else out of the lesson. Finally, the boletín always has the news of the day, so it is highly relatable to students and they are constantly being exposed to the important world events of the day.
When I first started using the boletín, my co-worker thought I was nuts. After all, what eleventh grader can understand the rapid speech rate of a news item being described in twenty seconds or less? It turns-out that most eleventh graders can understand this type of text, when challenged to understand the main points, and when they are encouraged throughout the year to continue making progress. Finally, I have found that it is often not my "A" students who really succeed in the listening arena and listening to the boletín provides an opportunity for other students to shine.
Here is how I slowly scaffold my students to listening to and comprehending the boletín
Prior to using the boletiín in my class, I listen to it to see how many different items are presented (usually 4 to six). Then for students who are new to listening/watching, I write just two questions on the board for however many items are presented. These questions are simply ¿Dónde? and ¿Qué?
My board would look like:
1) a. ¿Dónde? 2) a. ¿Dónde
b. ¿Qué? b. ¿Qué?
3) a. ¿Dónde? 4) a. ¿Dónde?
b. ¿Qué? b. ¿Qué?
If you have ever watched el boletín you might be thinking that anyone could glean the answers to these two questions simply from watching the video. I agree and that is the point. Students quickly learn that they can understand the boletín simply from being attentive to what they are watching, and as a result they begin to relax, once they realize that they can accomplish the task. Once students have become accustomed to hearing the boletín and they are mostly comfortable answering the two questions above, I begin to add other questions such as ¿Quién? This question often cannot be answered by simply watching the video and the students begin to listen for the salient information without realizing how much their listening skills have grown. Finally, I add ¿por qué? when relevant. Sometimes with the addition of new questions, I have to repeat the video more than the standard two times that I use once students are comfortable at each new level.
While this activity is challenging for students, I find that they are generally excited and proud to be able to go up to the board upon the completion of the video and fill-in the answers to the questions. Another added bonus to using the boletín, according to my AP Spanish students, is that every other listening article seems slow in comparison.
Do you use el boletín in your classroom? What are your favorite listening sites? LAITS?
To me, the boletín is perfect because it presents a bunch of information in an extremely short time period. Additionally, it is short enough that it can be played numerous times without having to cut something else out of the lesson. Finally, the boletín always has the news of the day, so it is highly relatable to students and they are constantly being exposed to the important world events of the day.
When I first started using the boletín, my co-worker thought I was nuts. After all, what eleventh grader can understand the rapid speech rate of a news item being described in twenty seconds or less? It turns-out that most eleventh graders can understand this type of text, when challenged to understand the main points, and when they are encouraged throughout the year to continue making progress. Finally, I have found that it is often not my "A" students who really succeed in the listening arena and listening to the boletín provides an opportunity for other students to shine.
Here is how I slowly scaffold my students to listening to and comprehending the boletín
Prior to using the boletiín in my class, I listen to it to see how many different items are presented (usually 4 to six). Then for students who are new to listening/watching, I write just two questions on the board for however many items are presented. These questions are simply ¿Dónde? and ¿Qué?
My board would look like:
1) a. ¿Dónde? 2) a. ¿Dónde
b. ¿Qué? b. ¿Qué?
3) a. ¿Dónde? 4) a. ¿Dónde?
b. ¿Qué? b. ¿Qué?
If you have ever watched el boletín you might be thinking that anyone could glean the answers to these two questions simply from watching the video. I agree and that is the point. Students quickly learn that they can understand the boletín simply from being attentive to what they are watching, and as a result they begin to relax, once they realize that they can accomplish the task. Once students have become accustomed to hearing the boletín and they are mostly comfortable answering the two questions above, I begin to add other questions such as ¿Quién? This question often cannot be answered by simply watching the video and the students begin to listen for the salient information without realizing how much their listening skills have grown. Finally, I add ¿por qué? when relevant. Sometimes with the addition of new questions, I have to repeat the video more than the standard two times that I use once students are comfortable at each new level.
While this activity is challenging for students, I find that they are generally excited and proud to be able to go up to the board upon the completion of the video and fill-in the answers to the questions. Another added bonus to using the boletín, according to my AP Spanish students, is that every other listening article seems slow in comparison.
Do you use el boletín in your classroom? What are your favorite listening sites? LAITS?
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