This week's featured seller is Emilie Del Risco aka the Island Teacher. Her blog is the Island Teacher and her products are available at her TeachersPayTeachers store.
Teaching History:
I have been teaching for 13 years. I have taught a wide range of Spanish classes from Kindergarten-High School. I currently teach at a small private school in the Cayman Islands where I teach Spanish from grades 2-10. :) Additionally, I have taught ESL classes in an Intensive English Language university program.
Favorite Thing about Teaching Languages:
I, like many teachers, love the lightbulb moment when I student "gets" a concept. I also love to see my students enjoying an activity and practicing their language skills outside of the classroom.
Favorite Lesson:I love teaching about Cinco de Mayo. I enjoy "schooling" students on what this day is really about. I find that it's very eye opening for them to learn that the day is not really much of a holiday in Mexico after all AND reminding them that it is NOT Mexico's Independence Day.
The
phrase “Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta, no llores” (from "Cielito Lindo") helped
my Spanish students remember that the affirmative “tú” command drops
the “s” but the negative command retains the “s” and changes the ending
from “–as” to“-es” on “–ar ending verbs”.
One Tip to WL Teachers:
Find out what works for your students and don't be afraid to step outside of the textbook! Include as many authentic resources as possible. :)
Free Product:
Spanish Big Numbers Task Cards Speaking and Writing-Activity
One thing that my students and I really enjoy using are task cards. There are so many diverse ways to incorporate these into your lessons. You can read more about how to use these in this blog post.
Featured Product:
Cinco de Mayo Task Cards Questions and Writing Prompts
Looking for a resource to use with your Cinco de Mayo lesson? Check out these Cinco de Mayo writing prompts and question task cards. This resource also includes a link to an online article that you can print or have students access to answer the task card questions.
This week's featured seller is Caroline Marion, of I Speak Your Language. You'' definitely want to visit Caroline's TeachersPayTeachers store.
Teaching History:
My 20+ years of teaching included teaching high school French/Spanish, and K-12 ESL. These jobs took me to Nebraska, Texas, Iowa, and Minnesota. I am now retired from teaching but continue posting some of my favorite lesson plans on the Teachers Pay Teachers’ website.
Favorite Thing about Teaching Languages:
I enjoyed watching my students take “center stage” acting out sentences in the target language in a game of charades or doing little skits, such as ordering a meal in a restaurant or introducing oneself to a fellow traveler on a bus.
Favorite Lesson:
When teaching the familiar you command form in Spanish, I taught students a short musical phrase to help them remember the rule.
The phrase “Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta, no llores” (from "Cielito Lindo") helped my Spanish students remember that the affirmative “tú” command drops the “s” but the negative command retains the “s” and changes the ending from “–as” to“-es” on “–ar ending verbs”.
When we were correcting their worksheets, I had students read their answers and the class would remain silent if the answer was correct. If they heard a mistake, the class would sing the phrase, “Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta, no llores” (Oh dear, sing don’t cry.) The student in error would then try to correct the mistake. This kept the attention of the class and brought smiles to students’ faces even if they made mistakes. When test time came around, I told students they could hum the melody to remember the rule.
One Tip to WL Teachers:
Use visuals, actions, and music to keep your language presentations interesting and memorable.
Free Product:
Spanish –ER/IR Verb Game – La Maestra Dice
Challenge students to repeat sentences filling in the “blank” as they try to “match” the teacher response.
Examples: Mi padre bebe una taza de ____________. (a drink)
¡Qué lástima! No comprendo mi tarea de _____________. (a subject)
Featured Product:French End of Year Game – Parlez ou Pantomime
This fast-paced game makes a fun year end review for students who have just one minute to give oral clues or gestures, hoping their team can guess the six words in a category (verbs, clothing, foods, animals, professions, places, feelings, and more).
1st – 2nd yr. French, grades 6th-10th
This week's featured seller is Sherry Schermerhorn of The World Language Cafe. You can visit Sherry's TeachersPayTeachers store and her blog The World Language Cafe.
Teaching History:
Taught high school French and Spanish for 9 years before deciding to stay home when I had kids. Currently, I'm raising my kids bilingually (even though I'm not a native speaker - they're definitely my biggest teaching challenge) and I teach a Spanish class in my home for 4-6 year olds.
Favorite Thing about Teaching Languages:
I love it when students get lost in the moment and forget that they're speaking another language because they're having so much fun. I always pride myself on having a somewhat noisy classroom because that means that my students are thoroughly engaged in an activity.
Favorite Lesson:
Famous Hispanics: I created a 20 clue guessing game to teach my students about famous Hispanics. It's a PowerPoint that shows the clues one by one and then a picture of the person at the end. After each clue, they write down a guess of who it is. At the end, the person who got it right first, gets to be the person who clicks and reads the next set of clues. I start out with famous Americans and then move on to famous Hispanics. Afterwards, students make their own set of 20 clues as a homework assignment. To top it all off, we finish by researching additional famous Hispanics and doing mini-presentations about them to the class.
I love this project because it combines, reading, writing, listening, speaking, and culture all in one and the students have a blast. I'm always looking to "spice up my classroom" and this lesson does just that.
One Tip to Language Teachers:When you are planning your lessons, think about how people learn languages naturally when they are kids. We don't learn from doing grammar lessons in a book or conjugating verbs. We learn by using the language every day and hearing expressions repeatedly. Whenever I meet people who say that they tried to learn Spanish in high school and are really bad at languages, I always say, "Well, that's funny because you speak English pretty well!" How we teach is so important. Immersion is a must! Even if your classroom is not an immersion classroom now, you can change that, even mid-year.
Spend every Monday talking about what your students did over the weekend. Have your students leave 3-4 blank pages in their notebook for weekend news expressions. Write common difficult expressions on the board and have them write them down in their notebooks. That way, each week, they can build on what they have learned. Have other students ask follow up questions. Ex. If a student says, "I went to a soccer game", other students can ask: Where was the game? When was the game? Who won the game? Did you go to the game with anyone else? Did you eat anything at the game? Who scored a goal? etc.
Allow time for these discussions to get longer each week as the students get better at speaking. After all, this is the type of language that they will most need to be able to communicate. By the end of the year in my class, we spend almost all of Monday just talking, but all in the target language. Through these discussions, present any grammar that they need, but in the simplest manner possible (as you would to a 2-4 year old) - just give the expression that's needed.
Free Product:
Mexican Flag Spanish Flag Photos and Interesting Facts
When I was teaching about the Hispanic countries and their flags, I realized that flags just aren't enough to teach
students about the countries. Wouldn't it be more fun to see pictures of the people, sites, foods, and festivals? So I began creating a country bundle that includes 6-8 colorful photos, flags, maps, and interesting facts for each of the 21 Spanish speaking countries. I added songs, nationality practice, word searches, and more so that I could teach about 1 different Spanish speaking country per week in my classroom. Instant culture!
Featured Product:
You can also print the photos on cardstock, laminate them and use them as classroom decorations. A great way to inspire your students to learn the language so they can visit all these amazing places.
