A Music-Centered Curriculum

Last year, I made an attempt to follow the curriculum in the newest Look, I can talk! books (Blaine Ray).  However, for various reasons, it just wasn't cutting it for me.  However, one thing that students were picking up really well were the songs.  Along with the LICT curriculum, I did activities with LEGO stop-motion videos based on the original LICT stories and of course Señor Wolly (their favorite).  In fact one particular struggling student's mom purchased a school Señor Wooly account so that her son and the rest of my students could access the videos!  Students were able to remember and use the phrases because they got the songs stuck in their head and enjoyed singing them as well as associated the words with the videos that accompanied the songs.  After getting some feedback from students, I decided mid-year to re-do my curriculum and have the songs at the heart of the curriculum.  In other words, my structures were pulled from the songs and listening to the songs became a central part of instruction.  Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, I wasn't able to plan this curriculum shift out methodically and it showed, but it also showed how much the students were learning.  However, the 2014-2015 school year will have a music-based curriculum that I feel will be much stronger and I can't wait to see the results.  Here's how I went about structuring it:

First, I used Bryce Hedstrom's list of the 400 most common words to identify the words that I wanted my students to know.  Then, I looked at various songs from both of the previous resources as well as songs commonly used by other Spanish teachers, including authentic songs (for example, "Eres Tú" is an excellent first-year song!).  I identified prominent phrases within the songs (usually they were repeated multiple times, giving me lots of repetition and increasing the likelihood that students would know them) and cross-checked that they included high-frequency vocabulary and/or important grammatical concepts that I wanted my students to be exposed to and acquire (in the lower levels, phrases with high-frequency vocabulary were emphasized while grammar gained increasing importance with the higher levels since they already know many of the high-frequency words and have acquired more fluency).  I also ensured that the phrases were in a complete sentence (or were put into a complete sentence with minor adjustments) and that I could come up with a discussion topic with which I could PQA, circle, discuss, and/or tell a story with.

In Intro to Spanish and Spanish 1 classes (which are very similar) have a very well laid-out curriculum, especially since I've taught these levels before and know where to start/end up, what my resources are, and the general strengths and pitfalls of particular phrases and songs.  Ultimately, I decided to leave my Spanish 2/3 classes (I have both levels in the same class) a little more flexible and identified a loose order of songs to do with them and will select specific phrases as we go (these students are generally more proficient than a regular Spanish 2 class since they've had Spanish all through elementary school, Intro to Spanish, Spanish 1, and for some Spanish 2, as well as being at a high-performing school and they take Spanish as their elective over other options; thus, the majority of what I'm doing is practice, practice, practice and just help them become more fluent since they are already conversational and this is the first time I'm teaching these levels).  The phrases are what students will be tested on, but as all Comprehensible Teachers know, they will know so much more than just those phrases.

In addition to centralizing my curriculum on these phrases, I'm doing "Verb Karate" with my Spanish 2-3 students, doing someting called "Algo Más" each Friday, and putting an emphasis on reading.

• Verb Karate is similar to the activities on Conjuguemos.com and will help them start solidifying their knowledge of grammar.  I'm going to directly teach a verb form once and then review it for a week or two before teaching the next form.  Students simply need to demonstrate that they can conjugate the verb endings (which will be available to them during the test) correctly by completing a conjugation quiz pulled straight from Conjuguemos every other week.  I expect them to earn 5 "belts" per semester, though there will be a surprise for students who earn all 15 "belts".  I'll write more about Verb Karate at a later date.
• "Algo Más" is simply that - "Something more".  These are a variety of topics that I don't cover nor test in my regular curriculum (though they might be a "bonus" question).  Some of these are vocabulary-based (head, shoulders, knees, and toes), some are culture-based (the countries and capitals of Spanish-Speaking countries), and some are just an additional fun way to get CI (learning a song that didn't fit into the curriculum but that students enjoy).
• With reading, students will be doing free-choice reading Monday-Thursday (further reinforcing their command of high-frequency vocabulary) and whole-class reading with me on Thursdays.  The whole-class reading for lower levels will come from Blaine Ray's New LICT books since they provide short stories and activities that go with them based on high-frequency vocabulary.  The higher levels will read more authentic resources from Spanish and Latin American literature as well as current events.  I worked out a 5-step process for students to complete these readings in groups (context, pre-reading questions, brief summary, embedded reading, and post-reading questions), especially since I'll be teaching both my Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 classes separately at the same time (thank goodness they're my more responsible and advanced kids!).  Again, I'll write more about these activities in a future post.

That's basically my curriculum in a nutshell!

PS - I'll update soon with the actual songs and structures I chose.

Spanish Reading Materials

I'm working on building a library for my students to read from.  With a focus on Comprehensible Input and minimizing frustration, I plan for students to select their free-choice reading material from my library or to purchase their own books (giving them even more choice and flexibility) from an extensive list of leveled reading resources.  These resources I'm suggesting come from the novels popular with TPRS teachers, short stories (again from TPRS resources as well as my own), carefully selected popular novels that students should be able to read, and authentic resources that include embedded readings and context for students to understand them.  I'll help guide students to what best fits their level and interests, allowing for considerable differentiation and flexibility in choice.  Of course, if students have something they REALLY want to read, then their motivation can overcome the difficulty of the book and it's still valuable, but most students find that my recommendations are usually the most enjoyable since they feel more capable of reading them.

Below are "Amazon Wish Lists" of the books I plan on recommending to my students.  These were compiled based on what's available through Blain Ray, TPRS Publishing, and Susan Gross's list of Spanish novels.

Middle School Spanish (Intro to Spanish)
Spanish 1
Spanish 2
Spanish 3
Spanish 4
Spanish 5
Spanish 6

Additionally, I am selecting authentic resources from NMSU's reading list for students in their Spanish Literature Master's degree list.  Almost all of the items other than the books (they're formatted correctly, so books titles are all underlined) are in the public domain, so you can easily find them online.  These can be very challenging, so I'm making these available to students to read if they want (there's some wonderful poetry and enlightening essays!).  I will be teaching some of these to my Spanish III students separate from free-choice reading as well.

On a side note, I'm trying to raise funds to purchase many of these books so that students have more selection in my classroom.  If you'd like to donate, please visit my GoFundMe page: http://www.gofundme.com/ba121w (I will love you forever if you do!)

Embedded Reading

In my efforts to flip my classroom, I've been trying to think of an effective way to prepare my students for the reading days.  I wanted to find something that they could read (since that's what they're preparing to do), but that would be easy enough that they could be successful on their own.  I was having some trouble until....

I discovered embedded reading!  This is something that I've been hearing about every now and then without actually understanding what it was.  Initially, I thought it was something like supplemental reading - different texts that would support the themes and concepts in a main text, much like was done in both my US and Latin American history and literature classes.  I decided to finally take a look and see what all the fuss was about.  I found this wonderful blog, Embedded Reading, that set me straight (it's now added to my blog list on the side panel of this page).

The blog is very thorough about them and I highly recommend heading on over to it, but I'll write a brief explanation here.  Rather than different texts focusing on a particular theme, embedded readings are essentially the same text, but with various levels created for it that are embedded in one another.  The first level is easy enough for anyone in the class to read and understand without effort.  Then, each of the following levels has more detail and elaboration, making the text more complex and difficult, until students are reading a text that would generally be difficult, but not impossible for them.  However, because students already have background knowledge about the text that was easily understood at previous levels, students are better able to understand the more complex levels o the text.  It's scaffolding!

This is the answer to my reading preparation days :)  I want to use these in two ways:

Extended Reading - This will be pretty straightforward as I take the Look, I Can Talk! extended stories and create easier levels for them.  I imagine I'll probably make 3 levels for each story using the "top down" approach (starting with the hardest text and simplifying it):  The hardest will be what is actually written in the Look, I can talk! textbook, while the easiest will be what I have students read at home as part of my "flipped" classroom.  I can see various activities we could do in class to read both the "middle" and "highest" levels.  Since I'll be scaffolding them appropriately, I can easily see us being able to read the stories as a whole class, in groups, and even individually with me there to support them.  One thing I do enjoy doing - especially for independent and group reading - is to have students ask me what unknown words mean and I can write them on the board with their definitions in order to support the entire class at once.

Storytelling/writing - I like this idea to support both reading and writing.  After we tell a story, the students' homework and preparation for the next day is to rewrite the story told in class.  From the stories submitted, I can choose three to edit and type for students to read the next day - one that's basic, another that's a little more difficult, and one that's advanced.  (Another idea I have to support students' writing, especially at first, is to provide a "skeleton story" where students can just fill in the blank to re-write their story, which would be at the basic level).  Then, students can read and re-read the stories they and their peers wrote!

TPRS Post - Judy Debois

Great post on the MoreTPRS goup from Judy Debois that I didn't want to forget!

Interesting questions, Deb. Here are some of my thoughts, for whatever they're
worth.


IMHO vocabulary lists will help some students, those who as you say have visual
memories and those who are interested in languages, as Dr. Krashen says. I
don't see how they can hurt the others, who will ignore them anyway, right? 
Unless you tell them to memorize them, in which case they will waste a lot of
time and effort that will not be very productive. Memorization is by definition
short term. I prefer to give my students a story, maybe a new story, that uses
the vocabulary in question. If they read it through they'll get revision in
context, which will give them new associations to help them remember the
structures. Once they have enough associations, the word/structure will be in
their long term memory. You might ask students who are artistic to illustrate
the new story, which will give even more associations, visual ones, with the
structures. So basically, you have to decide whether your limited time is better
spent making up three categories of vocabulary lists or making up a new story
for the most important vocabulary. (And you can cheat by giving them a story by
a student/students in another class using the same vocabulary.)


Illustrated student stories, written and illustrated by students, are a good way
to build up a library for FVR. It's a struggle for us to make the language
simple enough, but they do it automatically with the limited language they have.
In a small school like yours I'm sure they'll recognize the author's name and
will find it "compelling".


I think you're doing it exactly right when you "echo" what a student has said. 
This is what "caretaker speech" does all the time. Baby says "peas" and you
echo back "please". Student says "la verte voiture" and you smile and nod and
say "Oui! La voiture verte!" The student may catch what you changed and take
note or they may not catch it, in which case it means that they're not ready for
that yet. But they won't feel humiliated because you pointed out that they had
made a mistake, which will make them think twice before speaking up again.


As for "correcting" written work, I prefer to "edit" it. I've explained this on
my blog, but my examples are from small groups of students. With a class I
would choose three papers, one very basic, one more complex and the best paper
of the lot. Then I would "edit" them so that there are no mistakes. I type the
three papers up, and bingo! You have an embedded reading. (I understand that
this is how Laurie Clarq first started doing embedded reading.) When you return
their papers where you have underlined in green everything that is correct, you
also give your students the three edited versions, telling them that they were
written by students in the class but not giving the names. You will see them
reading them closely. Each time I'm amazed at how attentively students read
texts written by their classmates and how willing they are to read the same
story three or four times. I call that compelling comprehensible input. I
answer any questions about structures and vocabulary, smiling like the cat that
ate the cream because I know that they're going to retain my answers to their
questions. If there were frequent mistakes that you corrected and no one asks
why, it means they're just not seeing them yet. You may want to target those
structures in your next lesson.


Basically, one thing that I have learned from horse riding is that it's much
more effective to teach a horse how to do something right than to spend time
teaching it not to do something wrong. Pointing out mistakes is teaching
students not to do something wrong. Giving them correct models is teaching them
to do it right.

The why and how of novel reading: One approach

I received a great response on the MoreTPRS Yahoo group to my post about reading Pobre Ana with students that haven't ever had Spanish instruction before.  This unexpected experience and subsequent comments have given me a few great insights!

First, I was able to clarify why I want to read novels in class.  What is my goal?  Mainly, I want students to be able to simply read and understand stories.  I want students to enjoy reading.  And, most importantly, I want them to experience success.  In describing her approach to reading novels, Susan Gross hit the nail on the head:

"I was ONLY aiming to make the kids love reading the book." - Susan Gross

That begs the question: What fosters this love of reading and what does not?  Susan continues...

"That means the oNLY thing I was worried about was making sure they understood the story. Period. I was NOT trying to build vocabulary! I did not care that adjective placement is different or that this is an interesting idiom." - Susan Gross

"We did not do any enrichment or projects or quizzes or activities. The first few years of doing novels I did a whole bunch of experiments doing projects and clever little assignments for each chapter, stuff like that. And I had a comparison with just reading as much and as fast as we could (keeping it enjoyable and talking about things that sparked an interest in the class, but only a couple of minutes here and there.) I tried as hard as I could to make it like my own pleasure reading: I NEVER stop to think of a title for each chapter or try to match characters with dialog or take a quiz! I just read because I enjoy the book. That was my goal with the novels: reading for fluency. That means no evaluations, no quizzes, just read it and enjoy it!" - Susan Gross 

So, did this actually achieve her goals?

"The results of many experiments always came out the same: Reading for pleasure beat every single activity or enrichment. So why would I want to work so hard? Why would I want to give kids quizzes? Heck, let's just read the book and laugh our fools heads off. Kids so fell in love with reading that they used to check out books fro my French library all of the time! Not just for free reading in class time, but to take home and read! Even kids who were 'non-readers' who swore that they hated reading wound up checking out books to read over the weekend." - Susan Gross

That sounds like exactly what I want to achieve!  As a kid, I was able to develop a love for reading and believe my language skills are a direct result of that.  If students are able to simply love what they're  doing and be successful, they'll continue to learn more beyond my classroom!  If not, then we are fighting a losing battle:

"Remember, my ONLY concern is getting kids to fall in love with French. And I used the novels to make them fall in love with reading French. Writing words on the board, making charts and lists of words, fill in blanks, put events in order, stuff like that does not contribute to reading enjoyment. If it did, then I would do those things every time I pick up a novel here at home. All the extraneous things that teachers do to books are "teacher things." They are not reading and they do not make kids WANT to read. We never do stuff like that at my book club, and I tried to make class as much like my book club as possible!  Keep your focus on just that one thing and you will get it going right." - Susan Gross

Scott Benedict echoed this sentiment:

"I never did well with all of those reading activities and treating these books as literature. I read them for the cultural content and for language acquisition. If we continue to make reading a chore, we will continue to be a nation of non-readers. We must change this! " - Scott Benedict

So what activities and clarification do work?  Susan describes when she would step in:

"When something came up that needed clarification, I clarified. NOT because I was the fount of knowledge, NOT because I wanted them to stop enjoying the story to look at vocab, NOT because of anything other than 'This needs to be clarified in order to understand what is going on and to enjoy the story!'" - Susan Gross

Expanding on this some, I do believe that class discussion of the book is beneficial and powerful, but only as it adds authentic meaning and clarification to the book, rather than an imposition of a meaningless "here's what you need to get from this" activity.  Susan suggested what this type of discussion might look like:

"As for discussion, try to discuss in Spanish. But if what you have to say is too complicated, then do it in English. Or ask a question in English and in Spanish like this "Do any of you know a person like Ana?" "¿Conocen Uds. a una persona como Ana?" The kids will answer in English most likely but if it can be put into comprehensible Spanish, then do so. The important thing is to enjoy the story and to laugh about it. So maybe you ask if Barney the Dinosaur is like Ana. Things like that. Make it fun and then get back to reading the book." - Susan Gross

Mira Canion identified why teaching background information leading up to the book and continued discussion of these things while reading plays a critical role in reading novels:

"Reading a novel in a second language is different than reading a simple short story that was created by a class. There are layers of meaning. Background knowledge about historical events, cultural references, etc., plays a much bigger role in successful reading of a novel than in reading simple stories. Knowing vocabulary is only part of the comprehension puzzle. Keeping the plot, characters, and background information straight competes with vocabulary recognition. It is important that students be able to visualize what they read. Too much unfamiliar vocabulary and lack of background knowledge can make visualization very difficult. It is very helpful to choose the right level reading. ... So, consider reading a book that is very comprehensible so that all students have a chance at being successful. Then have other readings that explore the themes and background of the novel." - Mira Canion

She also suggested mixing up the format in which we read the novel, and I particularly liked how she described these activities as creating a "shared experience":

"My favorite way to read novels is to help students visualize the plot by acting it out much like a tprs story. I also like to mix in silent readings of the text with a few deep comprehension questions or have the students draw the main action. My students love to be able to read a novel and act it out because reading becomes a shared experience." - Mira Canion 

However, it should be pointed out that, just because you aren't focusing on vocabulary or structures, this doesn't mean students aren't learning them.  In fact, just the opposite - as demonstrated by my experience with the student reading Pobre Ana, she was learning vocabulary and how the language was put together by simply reading it with me and nothing more.  I can't remember where I saw it, but I recently read a quote which indicated that the best way for anyone to acquire incidental vocabulary is through reading - and that's exactly what's happening when we read with our students.

Moreover, students are motivated when we guarantee success.  In reference to my experience with the student I read with, Susan said:

"It is our job to guarantee success. If a child does not know something and we do not provide the meaning of the word, then we are making the kid feel dumb. The kid will eventually retaliate against us with hostility, refusal to go along with our wishes, attempts to do something different, getting off-topic, etc etc etc. When we guarantee success, we invite the kids to show how great they are. We translate for them and just ask them to do the words they know." - Susan Gross

Then, she described how this looks in her classroom and the atmosphere it creates:

"Now can you imagine how it looked in my classroom when one kid was doing a paragraph? Was I looking around for misbehavior? No! I was reading with the kid, just a few words ahead and anytime the kid paused, even just to catch his breath, I was right there, saying the next word for him. He just kept on reading and the whole paragraph was read smoothly, with no hesitation. Whether he paused to swallow or cough or because he didn't know the word was of NO IMPORTANCE. The only thing that mattered was that we were reading and enjoying the story line. Just like when I read for pleasure. I just keep gong even when the author uses a word I am unsure of! So I made that same atmosphere in my classroom." - Susan Gross

She goes on to answer the question that was bound to come up:

"Do I make sure everyone translates? What if a kid does not want to do it? I think you already know the answer, but I will answer the question with a question: Does forcing a kid do something against his will make the novel more interesting/exciting/fun?" - Susan Gross

Powerful words! (Why does it seem that so many teachers are blind to this?)

Both Scott and Susan also had excellent comments on how to to incorporate reading novels in the classroom, and I'm sold.  Susan reiterated the insight I had based on reading Pobre Ana with a student without any Spanish: I don't necessarily need to teach everything necessary for students to read the leveled novella readers on their own - they're already ready to dive right in with proper guidance:

"Students do not need to 'get ready' for it; they can be successful right away in the first quarter." - Susan Gross

So the question would be when to schedule it in along with all the other activities we do.  While the Look, I can talk! teacher guides lay out a plan that includes novel reading once per week, it would take an entire semester to read a book.  That doesn't sit well with me.  Instead, I originally planned on reading a chapter or so each week, completing one novel each quarter, but I can see how that would get pushed aside and dragged out.  As Scott describes:

 "I never liked the read once a week thing as it always drew out the stories too long and both myself and my students lost interest." - Scott Benedict

Another idea would be to read it all at once, which I am coming back to after being dissatisfied with how weekly novella reading was working with my preliminary curriculum planning.  I'd still do one book per quarter, but set aside two weeks for each one.  That's plenty of time to read a chapter or two each day and be very thorough, yet make progress fast enough to experience continuity.  Plus, there are a few extra benefits:

"I used to end each quarter with a novel.  So I taught 7 weeks of TPRS/culture and then two weeks to zoom through a novel.  We just picked up the novel and started translating.  In ten days (two weeks) we were done with the book!  And during those ten days, I made sure that everybody had all of their work made up so I had no catching up to do after the grading period." - Susan Gross

Now, wouldn't that be nice?  Two weeks off of formal teaching for me and my students leading up to the end of the grading period, and more effective in the first place!  It's a match made in heaven - and I think this is the path I want to take.  I also don't have to worry about whether I've taught the structures for the books - students will spend the first 7 weeks acquiring, acquiring, and acquiring more, so they should be able to understand quite a bit of the book on their own no matter what structures we've done. That frees me up to select my structures based on more repetitive materials (I'm going back to the LICT stories) that facilitate acquisition, and then allows students to recognize and apply them in a broader, less repetitive context.

For me, this works particularly well as I'll be grading notebooks (and students won't have their notebooks) at the end of the quarter as well as facilitating any re-takes students want to do.  Instead of worrying about new material, students and I can focus on getting where we need to be with the material we've worked on all quarter/semester, ready to begin a new one.

As Susan mentioned, fostering this love of reading will also encourage to read on their own, which I plan to do through free-choice reading of a set amount of time each week.  Mira touched on this briefly:

"Combine a class novel with student choice. Let students choose their own novel to read independently. They can journal or write about how they connect to the character or plot." - Mira Canion

Yay for collaboration!

The Power of Pobre Ana

I unexpectantly conducted an interesting experiment today that resulted in a powerful learning experience.  I was subbing in a middle school class, and during student "flex" time (they can go to a classroom of their choice to work on thigns), a student didn't have anything to do.  I happened to have my "Pobre Ana" with me, so I said "Let's read a story together.  You're going to read in Spanish."  And with that, I sat down and read "Pobre Ana" with her - I started translating and paused on proper nouns and cognates letting her translate - she was generally translating at least a few words per sentence.  By the end of the chapter, I was also pausing on other frequent words that were completely new to her, like "escuela", "chica", "ropa", and "libro".  Keep in mind, this is a student that hasn't EVER had any Spanish instruction.  She loved it, and can't wait to read more!

For her, this was:
Completely unexpected.
Entirely voluntary.
Engaging enough that she wants to do it again.
A successful experience.

And the kicker?  I'm subbing in the Extended Resource Room and one of the aides informed me later that she was a "particularly low" student.

There are so many things that I took away from this, but one thing in particular stuck out to me:  I've been trying to plan my curriculum for this fall and was having trouble figuring out when my students would be ready to begin the novel.  This experience answered that question for me - they're already ready. The leveled novellas have been so well thought out and written to make our students successful. Of course, students will pick up on and comprehend different things depending on what they've already learned (I even learn things when I read them!), but when it comes down to it, middle and high school students are interested and ready to read them without any prior Spanish experience as long as they have an attentive guide.

Authentic Resources and TPRS

Just read a great blog post from Kristy Placido on the use of authentic resources in a TPRS curriculum.    Without repeating too much of what she had to say, I wanted to express my thoughts on the subject.

I believe that authentic resources in a language classroom is important - inasmuch as they are comprehensible.  Bottom line is that students won't learn anything from something they cannot understand.  To promote language acquisition, I use my leveled readers as the core of my curriculum.  This upcoming year, we're going to use the Pobre Ana series along with the New LICT extended readers to form our curriculum.  These contain the most important words and structures need to learn to get started, and giving them materials that they can fully understand - mostly on their own - is a powerful learning experience.  In the end, Spanish is still Spanish, whether it comes from me or an "authentic" material.

Because students are learning the most common and important structures and phrases, they should be able to find them in authentic resources as well.  Ultimately, students should be ready to read and listen to these resources in a comprehensible way.  At first, that may include authentic stories that I present, as Kristy described:

For instance, if I want to discuss a news story, I might show my students an article or a short video about it (in Spanish). However, if the items are incomprehensible, I might use them primarily as a visual and speak about them myself in simpler language, focusing on a small amount of new vocabulary, relying on cognates, visuals, and previously-acquired vocabulary, and using very natural grammar and syntax. For higher-level classes, I might even type up an “embedded reading” in which I simplify the story for reading/discussion prior to delving in to the authentic resource.

I'm lucky enough to be working in a school where students have more than the "usual" amount of Spanish instruction and will be beginning high school with already three years of daily Spanish instruction with a CI curriculum.  I believe this will enable me to take the highest level classes another step forward and use authentic resources as the core of my curriculum, similar to the literature books we used in my college-level classes.  Of course, this will often have some sort of scaffolding to prepare the for the structures and vocabulary used in the material.  It'll be a few years before we have students at that level, but I'm very excited to see where this might lead in the years to come!

Chapter Glossaries

Many of the novellas from Blaine Ray and TPRS publishing have glossaries in the back.  One interesting feature of these glossaries is that they are often arranged by chapter, enableing teachers and students to review any "new" words before reading the chapters.  Unfortunately, the Pobre Ana does not come with glossaries arranged by chapter - so I'm going to make my own!  Before reading each story, I'll hand out a packet with the chapter glossaries for the entire book, and we can review each chapter's "new words" before reading each time.  I plan to put "fair game" words that may show up in context on future assessments - such as the common "little" words like "todos" (all/everyone) and "cada" (each) - in bold, so students can focus on these first.  This works especially well for me since I can draw attention to the most important words as well as work around structures students should already know.

Pobre Ana Series

I just finished reading the Pobre Ana series for Spanish 1! 

I really like the Pobre Ana series for "required" reading that we do as a class because it sticks to common phrases and vocabulary that I can easily teach through telling TPRS stories.  Since they're all about life in general, they stick to the most common words, getting progressively more complex which each level.  Moreover, it brings in a lot of culture - each book takes place somewhere different and has a lot of really good themes we could focus on.  These are books I could easily center a curriculum around!

"Amigos Detectives" is a little different as it focuses on a science and biology theme.  I found myself stopping more frequently to look up words in it more than any of the other books because I didn't know words for animals and other specific vocabulary.  I think it would be a good "extra" book that uses the most frequent vocabulary and structures in new ways.   If we had time, or we just wanted to read a book "for fun" I would use it, but feel that teaching the vocabulary needed to read the book without looking in the glossary often would be difficult.  If it was read out loud as a class, this wouldn't be so much of an issue since I could just translate those words for them, but I feel there's power in reading a book that the students feel they can read without my assistance, especially if it's a central part of our curriculum.  Plus, I will likely want to vary how students are reading, including independent, and I don't want them to get discouraged or frustrated.  Checking the glossary every now and again is ok, but I felt I had to do it so much that it disrupted the flow of the book.

Just my two cents so far.  I'm excited to read the other books - 6 down, 14 to go!

The power is in the logic

I made Inklewriter story one for my Pobre Ana: Story 2 structures and I feel like I finally figured out how to best use it for my needs!

While Inklewriter is brilliantly simple to use, figuring out how to use it to its full potential is quite the learning curve.  I guess this wouldn't be such an issue for most people who are actually writing stories that branch off different directions, but mine frequently give the reader small options that are incorporated into the story, but don't change the story (like names) and it's a hassle to create two parallel stories and keep them straight.  In addition, many of my questions are comprehension questions that incorporate these details, so I have a number of tiny questions before the next part of the story is added.

However, I think I finally have the trick figured out, and the secret lies in the logic functions of Inklewriter.  By adding logic functions to the text, I only have to write one paragraph that can customize itself based on the previous choices of the reader.  In fact, I can even elect to show entire paragraphs based on what decisions have previously been made.

So then, I was having trouble with the options customizing themselves to fit the paragraphs, and having incorrect options loop back to where the correct answer was, especially since the correct answer is sometimes different depending on those decisions.  That is, until I realized I could hide/show the answers just like the paragraphs.  Thus, on one question, I have something to the tune of 12 possible answers for all the possible scenarios at that point (8 wrong, 4 correct), but only 3 will be shown to the reader based on what they've chosen so far (two wrong, one correct).  You can do this by saying to only show the option if choices "X", "Y", and "Z" were made.  There's no "or", but I don't know that you need it because you can also say to only show the option if choices "X", "Y", and "Z" were not made.  Thus, you should be able to logically get the correct options to appear.

At first, I thought this was more of a dichotomy.  For example, you could input:

• If "Choice X", then "Option X", but if not, then "Option Y")

But then, falling back on my discrete math class of which I only ever completed the first lesson, I realized I could use this dichotomy to logically pick one from any number of options.  I tested it out, and it worked!  For instance, you could input:

• If "Choice X", then "Option X", but if not, then if "Choice Y", then "Option Y", but if neither of those, then "Option Z".

Of course, if we really wanted to get complicated, then I could offer 5 choices by inputting: you could input:

• If "Choice X", then "Option X", but if not, then if "Choice Y", then "Option Y", but if none of those, then if "Choice Z", then "Option Z", but if none of those, then if "Choice N", then "Option N", but if none of those, then "Option P".

It's only logical!

Inklewriter Story!

I created my first Inklewriter story, complete with personalized details and circling!  Once I got the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use and brilliantly designed.  This goes with Pobre Ana: Story 1 - María the Theif.  Check it out!

"The Theif" Inklewriter Story

Some possible uses for these:

• Out of class reading activity
• Make-up for students who miss the story
• Help with storytelling in-class (you could add additional details and circling, act it out, etc)
• In-class reading activity

And I'm sure there are many more applications!

Just a tip:  Decide what you want to circle and personalize carefully.  Each detail that is circled or personalized adds more work!

Interactive Reading

Today, I discovered Señora Barragán's website and blog.  She's got a lot of great ideas!

One in particular was for a resource called Inklewriter.




Isn't this exactly what we do for our stories - having a framework, and then allowing students to change the details??  Of course, I would most likely be using the feature that simply changes the nouns used throughout the story...  But, I could also change the ending!  What a great way for students to practice reading stories at home!  Adding this to my must-do list :)

New Books!

I received my 20 books from blaineraytprs.com yesterday!!  Yay!  I ordered all of the novels for the middle school and level 1 classes.  Then, I labeled all of them with my name and the level they were written for (Novice-low/mid/high).  Finally, I'm reading all of them to see which ones I want to center my curriculum around and decide how I want to use them.  So far, I've read "Pobre Ana" and "Patricia va a California", and am just starting "Casi se muere".

My first impression is that I want to center my curriculum on the Pobre Ana series since they are so consistent with structures and draw upon a lot of culture.  My original plan was to pull a few structures for storytelling from a chapter, work on those structures for a week, and then read a chapter or so of the book.  However, there are so many structures used right from the beginning and the repeated throughout the book (which seems logical now), that it doesn't seem that would be effective.  Instead, I've adjusted my idea to use the book like a "unit".  I'll pick out the most important structures from the entire book, pair those with mini-stories (either from LICT or my own), and then work on those for a number of weeks.  I imagine I want to stretch these out over the entire quarter, and I think there's plenty of structures in the book to do so.  Then, at the end of the quarter, we'll set aside a week or so to simply read and discuss the book!  That week, there wouldn't be any independent reading or storytelling - just simply reading the book in-class, discussing it in Spanish, and possibly some sort of homework to reflect on what was read that day.  Another TPRS-er mentioned they liked reading books all at once this way because it's easier to remember and discuss some of the more minor details that make the story interesting.   I'm very excited about it!

In addition, I had another idea for culture.  Since I'd like to do about books per semester (one each quarter), I can compile a list of culture topics related to the book.  To keep the topics organized by which book we're reading, and possibly to help students create connections between different aspects of the culture, each topic would have an assigned date with one topic per day.  Students would sign up for which date/topic they would like to research and do a brief presentation on.  (Depending on how students sign up, I could either skip the remaining topics or do them myself.)  I want to explore different "approved" presentation methods to allow students some flexibility to use their strengths and interests along with a topic somewhat of their choice.  With only one 3- to 5-minute presentation per day, these would be spread out across the course of the semester, but not on our week set aside for reading.  Instead, all of the topics related to that particular book would be presented before our class novel-reading, which I believe would greatly enhance the class's background knowledge about the book and our discussions during the reading.  In lower levels, students could do their presentations in English, and, eventually in higher levels, I could require students to do their presentations in Spanish.

I can't wait to read more!  I haven't read any of the other novels (except "El Nuevo Houdini"), but right now I feel like those would best serve as class library books for free-choice reading.  If I got a few of each novel, I'd have enough books to go around and most students should be able to find something appropriate for their level :)

Inter-class pen pals

Ever since we wrote to pen pals in my second grade class, I have always loved the idea of giving my students the opportunities to write to pen pals.  Particularly in Spanish classes, this would be a wonderful way for students to practice reading and writing Spanish.  While I would love to do this with students from other countries in upper grades! I think students in lower grades would be nervous about writing to fluenct Spanish-speakers and also have difficulty reading.  However, yesterday a teacher told me about how students at her school have inter-class pen pals!  I thought this was such a fantastic idea I had to write it down! Students would write letters to a pen pal using their curreent vocabulary and be paired with another student at the same level and therefore using the same vocabulary.  They would use their Spanish nicknames, so they likely wouldn't know who they were writing to, at least at first.  This gets students practicing their Spanish reading and writing as well as creating a community between classes.  What a great plan!  Moreover, I could pair students in a way that they could learn from each other as each student has their own strengths and weaknesses in their writing, and students would begin to notice what they're doing correctly and what they need to improve on by reading their classmantes' writing.  I imagine I would require students to write back and forth each week (citizenship grade!), and then reveal pen pals at the end of each quarter and assign new ones to get more variety.  I can't wait!

Classroom Story Books

While coming up with ideas for my class library for free-choice reading, I'm tackling the issue of providing materials that are interesting for students while still being comprehensible.  Using childrens or other books, particularly for beginners, is difficult because they often contain strange and unusual words or ideas that are really not necessary or even helpful for devloping fluency.  Mreover, students will get discouraged when struggling to read books meant for children much younger than them.    One solution I plan to use is by providing leveled readers designed specifically for second-language learners, such a Blaine Ray's mini stories and novels.  I fact, I've got an entire set of beginner Spanish books from his site on the way to read and select my favorites to order for the class!   I've also been toying with the idea of providing my own reading materials based on the structures and stories used in my own classroom, which led me to this idea...

At the end of each year, I want to type up and bind/publish a collection of all the stories created within a class.  We would record each story we tell and each class would have their own book.  I imagine that many students would probably want their own copy as well, which would be an excellent resource to show evidence of and review what they learned that year.  

I got even more excited when thinking about how to get these recorded - In a combination of ideas from the MoreTPRS listserv, I plan to assign three students each story day to re-write the story from class in Spanish (I might consider dong it in English for the first few weeks in Spanish 1) and create an illustration.  I would be willing to take volunteers for the three people assigned that day to do it to ensure I got at least one version back, but I would probably require each student to submit a mininum number of re-writes whenever they wanted to throughout the semester as part of their citizenship grade.

 Edmodo would be great for this (though illustrations would probably need to be turned in on paper) as students can submit their stories that night and I can provide individualized feedback on their writing.  The next day, for review, I could also edit/combine the stories and hand out correct versions of a few stories for students to read and review the story from the day before.  Ultimately, I would create one "master" version that I would combine with the illustrations to go into the class story book to be published at the end of the year.  I love this idea because we can do so much with it with listening, reading, and reviewing, as well as create so many personallized resources for the class and that students will love to have for themselves!

Independent Reading

I would really like to encourage my students to do their own independent reading outside of class.  To me, beyond simply studying, this seems to be the best form of homework for my students to improve their vocabulary and get correct input.

Of course, even reading in their native language can be an arduous endeavor for students and many students end up hating it altogether (see my post "Death to Reading"), so how do we get them to read in a language completely new to them?  Luckily, for me, this is an opportunity to help my students re-discover a love of reading (see my post "The (Re)Birth of Reading").

I plan to set a weekly reading time requirement for students to read and journal about.  At first, it may be as little as 10 minutes of reading each week, building up to 30 minutes for higher levels.  Time is a better requirement than a certain number of pages/words as every students can make an effort for 10 minutes and progress as far as their level and ability allows them to, while a set number of pages or something similar might take a higher student a small effort to complete while it is near impossible for another student to complete no matter how long or hard they try.

Along the same lines, I want it to be as flexible as possible so that students feel they have some choice in the matter and are able to find what works best for them.  For instance, I don't want to put a requirement on the texts they read.  While we will complete novels and reading in-class that we use for discussions and other assignments/work, I want students to select their own materials to read outside of class.  Of course, I will guide them toward the materials of most benefit to them in language acquisition through teaching them how to tell if a book is an appropriate level for them as well as providing a "leveled" library of materials that they may check out, including readers such as those published by Blaine Ray and Carol Gaab and even short stories written by me and other students.  However, should students find books like children's stories or popular novels they've read in English more interesting and rewarding, they would be welcome to try reading those as well!  They would be welcome to find books on their own either from the library or bookstore (and hopefully even donate them to the class library when they're done!).  I did consider allowing students to use online materials, but believe that would result it text being copied and pasted into translators.  I think I'll just stick to books :)

A reading journal would be used to help students (and me) keep track of their reading.  Students would record the title and author of what they read as well as a brief summary/translation of the text and/or what they learned.  Since the goal would be to improve reading, I would allow them to write their summaries in English or in Spanish, but encourage students (especially upper levels) to try writing their summary in Spanish.  Of course, there would have to be a minimum requirement for how long the summaries have to be - possibly one word per required minute?  For instance, students required to read for 10 minutes each week would have to have summaries at least 10 words long.  In addition, they would create their own "personal dictionary" logging the new words they found.  Having done this myself, I would give them a minimum number of words (maybe using the same guideline for length of reading?) so that they don't have to log each and every new word.  I would also encourage them to log the most important words, whether it's a common word that they hear/read often or because it is a word they want to incorporate into their vocabulary.

I believe this process will set them up for success and allow them to gain a love for reading and an important means for input.  Now, I just need to start building up my Spanish library!

EDIT:  More reasons to support independent reading!  Is Self-Selected Pleasure Reading the Cure for the Long-Term ELL Syndrome? A Case History

The (Re)Birth of Reading

In my last post, I discussed how it seems that reading had been given a death sentence, particularly with high school students.  So what do we do now?

I believe that there are two main goals for reading, and they will dictate the route to reviving reading for our students.

1. Reading for information
2. Reading for language

Regardless of the purpose or goal for reading, there are a few things that each of these routes have in common.  First and foremost, the text must be comprehensible.  There is no point in reading if students cannot create meaning from what is being read.  Second, interest is critical.  We are all fully (and often painfully) aware that a student that is unwilling to learn cannot be taught, but that a student determined to learn cannot be stopped.  Likewise, a student that is unwilling to read cannot be forced to truly do so, but a student that is determined to read will succeed.  Even when the reading level is beyond a student's ability, a student determined to read and learn will find a way to do so.  If we are able to foster interest in our students, reading will follow.

Reading for Information

First, let's tackle reading for information.  This is the purpose of reading in many subjects.  Realistically, most informational texts are not going to be read from cover to cover.  Rather, we use various tools (like the Table of Contents or, my personal favorite, "search" function in electronic texts) to sift out the exact information we're looking for.  The other information will only be read if it is of interest to the reader or if it seems relevant to the task at hand.  Rather than forcing students to read an entire text they most likely will not take meaning from anyway, shouldn't we be teaching effective skills for finding this information?  Moreover, in the real world, students will most often not be given a specific text or source in the first place, but rather have to find their own reliable sources of information (in the case that they do have "required" reading, it will be in the career of their choice and I would assume their paycheck will be much more persuasive than a letter grade).  In today's technology- and information-infused age, shouldn't we focus on teaching them how to find reliable sources of information hidden within the countless resources students now have at their fingertips, or in their pockets?  Moreover, this would allow students to select the articles of most interest to them, and together the students and teachers can evaluate and critique the information as it pertains to the task at hand.  Wouldn't this prepare students for real-world situations and requirements?

In addition to allowing student to select their resources for information, we could also facilitate better comprehension and the opportunity for growth by providing students resources with a broad range of reading levels.  Even a more complex text can be simplified by hi-lighting and/or annotating the most important information so student's get lost in.  A library of resources on a broad range of subjects relating to the class and of various reading levels could be provided for students to find information as well as free-choice reading.  The teacher still has control over where the information is coming from, while providing student opportunities for students to select the resource of most interest and comprehensibility to them.  Even the highest readers could benefit from a library such as this which could include even articles from recognized Journals, which they will be asked to comprehend throughout college and, sometimes, their chosen careers.  Such a library encourages students to become active in their own learning and discover the joy of reading for learning information of value to them.

Finally, even the most boring textbook can be made interesting if read with the zeal and frenzy of a mad scientist.  (Of course, that also begs the question of 'why is the text boring?  Are the students understanding what the words even mean?)  Students' impression of subject matter highly depends on how the teacher presents it.  I assume you don't think your subject is boring, so why give your students the chance to think so?  Whatever happened to reading a text out loud?  And, when we do read out loud, is it always the best idea for students to be the ones reading out loud to the rest of the class in a monotone suck-the-life-out voice the best way the material could be presented?  And, anyway, isn't more effective and meaningful for you (or a student) to put it in their own words?  Isn't that what investigation and presentation is all about - finding the information from experts, creating meaning from it, and then re-wording it in the most effective way?

Reading for language

So, when should students actually be required to read a text word-for-word?  It's simple, and the research backs it up: Reading improves language.  It's builds vocabulary and strengthens grammatical forms.  As my mission is to teach language, this is where reading is not only necessary, but critical.  However, if I provide reading that is incomprehensible or of little interest to students, I will fail entirely.  Thus, we have the (re)birth of reading.  Starting from square one, since that is where my students generally are, I need to select texts the way that elementary teachers have done so well.  Required texts are not selected by the reading level at which they are written with subject matter that captivates the story-hungry child within all of us.  In addition, students are guided and supported throughout the reading.  Beyond required reading, students should be provided with opportunities to read based on personal interest and choice.  A library of Spanish books including everything from Dr. Seuss to Harry Potter as well as links to interesting articles and websites online are priceless resources in my classroom.  Students often take joy in re-reading a story they often heard as children and discovering they can also read it in another language.  Higher-level students take pride in being able to decode what the words mean and understanding more complex ideas embedded in the text.

Ultimately, nothing motivates like success.  So let's begin helping students experience success in reading - and the rest will follow.

Death to Reading

My heart broke the other day.

I was subbing as an aid, so I had the opportunity to observe other teachers as I moved from class to class.  One of these classes was an English class.  These students had just changed semesters, so they were more or less new to this teacher.  Personally, I was fascinated by him.  He gave a captivating introduction to a TED Talk video about digital books (which are WAY cooler than simple e-books or physical books! I highly recommend clicking the link to view this video).  Finally, he asked them to use a template they already had to write an 8-sentence paragraph about reading.  I believe the intent was for them to write their opinion about whether they were a "old-school" book person, "new school" book person, or even a "no-school" book person.

This is when my heart simply broke.  With the exception of two, or maybe even three, students, every student began their paragraph with "I hate reading.  Reading is boring."  Moreover, they wouldn't/couldn't even write an 8-sentence paragraph about this loathsome subject.

What have we taught our kids?  I know that it didn't start out this way.  In contrast, oftentimes in elementary school, I have to ask students to please put down their books, or many take advantage of free time to read.  I never get any grumbles when asking the student to read, and many get excited about new books or taking their "Accelerated Reader" tests for points after they've read a book of their own choice.  So what happened between then and now, to where not only are kids unwilling to read, but they're even unwilling to write about it?

I believe that somewhere along the way, the "fun" reading activities that were selected by reading-level and interest and supported by teacher guidance and assistance were swapped for textbooks and other required reading that students not only didn't care to read, but couldn't read.  Yet, they were required to, and that's that.  In fact, they were often given a "reading guide" that they had to fill in, and since students couldn't really understand it anyway and just wanted to get it over with, "reading" became "look for whatever matches it closest and fill in the blank", since all that was graded was the completion of the worksheet rather than any actual learning taking place.  Of course, the most efficient students could just copy off someone else's worksheet and never have to crack a book.  When it came time for the test, students could just cram all the information from the study guide into their brains and dump it onto the test.  And in all of this, what are we achieving?  I believe we've achieved three things: 1) Students have play "school" to get some sort of grade without actually learning anything, 2) We teach them that reading is a mind-numbing and loathsome activity, and 3) We teach them that this is about as exciting as the subject gets.

Very few high-schoolers even realize the power of reading is to learn, even though that seems to be what we're attempting to pound into their heads.  That's because they can't learn by reading anyway, and teachers keep shoving books their direction like it's supposed to change something.

Something has got to change.  This is a tough one, because textbooks will likely always be a resource in most classrooms.  However, why don't we use it as just that - a resource?  I firmly believe the most important resource in the classroom are the people within it, including the teacher, the students, and anyone else that might be joining the class.  Students should be taught to how find information within a text, but how we're doing it is simply ineffective.  For example, in one Earth Science class, the teacher's plans were for the student to spend the entire 90-minute period filling in a "reading guide" for the entire chapter.  The students hated it and the material they were studying, but, unfortunately, they reported this was a "normal" activity for their room.  On the other hand, another Earth Science teacher, using the same book and studying similar material, presented the information using an interesting power-point with lots of pictures, the bare-minimum information so students could easily guided take notes on their hand-out, and the teacher was the main source of information as he expanded upon the information provided in the powerpoint and made it relevant to the students.  Afterward, the students about about 10-15 minutes to fill in a second hand-out using the book.  However, rather than being a reading guide, it was a "compare and contrast" activity where students drew examples of each type of feature in under two different circumstances.  Rather than being forced to suck out the information word-by-word, students were engaged in finding the specific information necessary and applying it to determine the answers to their questions.  By the end of 15 minutes, most students were done with about 1/3 of the worksheet (including beautifully drawn pictures!), compared to a 90-minute "reading" activity in during which very few students finished.

Think about it - with the exception of reading a novel for fun, how often, especially in this age of the internet and other technology, do you actually sit down and read something cover-to-cover?  Especially as a teacher, even if you do read an entire book, I find I use the Table of Contents of most books to skip to what seems most relevant at that moment and read what is of interest and need to me, and then read the other parts later as I choose.  Moreover, I'm usually the one selecting the book I want to get the information from, taking into consideration the author's expertise, ease of reading, and whether it holds my interest.  When reading things "just for fun", I'm usually finding articles and other brief texts online that are of interest to me on a variety of subjects.  Aren't these the skills we should be teaching students?  And wouldn't these foster a much more positive attitude and willingness to READ?

Input Modes v. Output Modes: An interesting Observation

During my first semester using TPRS, I made an interesting observation.  Because it exposes students to more "natural" language and grammatical forms (whether or not they know it), I decided to go ahead and tell my stories in past tense.  However, I didn't feel like I was working enough present tense situations into my input for students to acquire that part of the language.  So, at some point during the semester, I decided to have students read in present tense to get a nice balance.  This produced an interesting result when it came to their output....

The students spoke in past tense.  However, they wrote in present tense.

Hindsight is 20/20 and this only seems logical now.  Still, I'm only just beginning to understand what the implications of such a phenomenon might be.

First, it showed me just how much output that is heard (speaking) is learned by input that is heard (listening).  Similarily, output that can be seen (writing) is learned by input that can be seen (reading).  Again, it only seems logical, but it's easy to forget we're fluent in the language - to me, it all goes together, especially since Spanish is generally written exactly how it sounds (unlike English).  Maybe I never noticed because English is my native language and doesn't seem to follow any rhyme or reason when it comes to spelling, though I never experienced this when I was learning Spanish (probably because I was more focused on the grammar-based curriculum that was used to teach me).

Second, I realized that something is just not clicking when it comes to the way words sound and the letters used to spell them.  They must be just writing what looks familiar without thinking about the way they sound - we touch on this idea when we refer to speakers speaking based on what feels and sounds right- from this experience, I have to assume that students also write what looks right.  Again, it only seems logical!  I have to assume that students are "saying" the words in their head as well, but there was still a disconnect between the spelling and the way it sounds, so looking right must be more important at this stage whether or not they realize it.  I'm not sure that this is really a problem at the moment because students will learn with time how the sounds match the spellings, but it does have one more critical implication for when we do read: students need to hear what they are seeing, and they need to hear it correctly.  It's tempting to allow students to read silently and independently, especially if they're understanding what they're reading, but this prevents them from connecting the correct sounds to the letters.  Think about how often we were read out loud to as children by parents, teachers, librarians - I'm sure the list goes on.  Then, as we advanced, we were asked to read out loud as well.  Whether or not this actually fostered comprehension is a different argument that I won't get into here, but it did give educators the opportunity to double check that what we hear is truly connected to what we read.

In the true spirit of TPRS, it only seems logical at this point to be sure we're following a pattern of "natural" acquisition through read-alouds (first by me to model correct pronunciation, then by students ready and comfortable enough to read to their peers) and ensuring that students are continually exposed to all forms of the language in through both listening and reading.  I'm sure most of my students had no idea what they were doing, but the insights it gave me were priceless.

Sample Lesson Plan 3

Lesson Plan

• Date: March 12, 2013
• Class: Spanish 1
• Lesson #: 1.1.2 – Novel, Culture, and Assessment
• Objectives: Read a novel for 8 minutes and write a summary of the reading.  Sing the countries and Capitals of Central America.  Write in Spanish for 5 minutes.
• Evaluation: Students will respond correctly and appropriately to comprehension questions and sing along with the class with enthusiasm.  They will also count the number of words they can write in 5 minutes.
• Resources/Technology: Structure Cards, El Nuevo Houdini, Rapitals Powerpoint and Song
• State Standards: WL1.1.3.2: Recognize written forms of basic vocabulary.; WL1.1.3.3: Associate the written text with spoken forms.; WL1.3.2.1: Locate the areas in the world where the target language is spoken.; WL1.1.4.4: Construct simple sentences using familiar vocabulary and phrases.

Posted Agenda:

1. Pruebita
2. El Nuevo Houdini
3. CA Countries and Capitals
4. Timed write

Lesson Plan:

1.   Pruebita (10 minutes) - take attendance during this time

• On page 12 of your IN (Interactive Notebook), answer these questions in Spanish:
• ¿Cómo te llamas?
• ¿Qué tienes?
• ¿Qué quieres?
• ¿Adónde vas en la noche?
• Correct and graph your score in your IN.

2.   El Nuevo Houdini (20 minutes)

• Librarians get books for their group and open to page 1.  I translate and students chorally translate the next word when I pause.
• After 8 minutes, ask and answer comprehension and discussion questions in Spanish using structures.
• Librarians collect and return them to the shelf.

3.   Countries and Capitals (45 minutes)

• Display Rapitals powerpoint.  Present country locations, names, and capitals one by one, adding actions.  Each time a country and capital is added, sing the capitals with actions we've done so far up to the next one until the song is complete.
• Students stand and sing with the Rapitals song, including actions.

3.   Timed Write (15 minutes)

• Display structures on the board.
• Students open their notebooks to the appropriate page.  When I say "go", they begin writing.  When the timer goes off in 5 minutes, students put an X and count the words they got.
• Scores are graphed in their IN