Diversity in the WL Classroom

Diversity is a topic that a lot of World Language teachers are thinking about recently.  Discussions in many social media groups have teachers reflecting about the environment and activities that are offered in their classrooms.  Questions such as, "do students see themselves in this curriculum?" are requiring many to revamp and make positive change in their lessons for the 2020-2021 school year.  The good news is that there are already resources available for others to use immediately.  Keep reading to find some ideas below.

One easy way to incorporate a more diverse structure to a curriculum is to make sure that more than one country where the target language is spoken is represented.  This can be done by simply promoting target language countries on bulletin boards or by having students do independent research on a place that interests them.  Here are a few resources that will help:

Country Research Project

Francophone Countries

German Speaking Cities Poster Project

Another way to involve diversity is to add activities which include culture into lessons.  Below are some great activities that can help:

German Trivia Cards

Spanish Culturopoly 

French in the USA Trivia Game

How about introducing students to famous target language speakers?  This is an easy way to have students find connections and comparisons to their own individual circumstances.  The following resources will help:

Famous Germans Biography Research Project

French Biography Project

Spanish Class Project

One final idea would be to incorporate famous quotes and citations that speakers of the target language have said.  

30 Inspirational Quote Signs in Spanish and English

French Women Quotes

German Quotes

Good luck in the upcoming school year as diversity becomes more prominent in the curriculum.  

Higher Order Thinking Skills in the WL Classroom

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) are activities in which learning requires augmented levels of cognitive processing.  On a Bloom's Taxonomy scale these activities would fall under the category of analysis, evaluation, or synthesis.  Chances are that if you're still in the classroom you've heard this terminology a lot.  How can we add these activities in the language classroom?

One way to incorporate HOTS is by providing students with more activities that require problem solving.  Think of conversations where students are only given half of the information and then must complete the missing parts logically to finish it.  This activity could be completed by providing students with blank spaces where the other half of the conversation would be found.  They could work individually to brainstorm possible responses and then after a specified amount of time students could partner up with each other.  Next, they would share their thoughts from their brainstorming session.  Then, students would decide who is Partner A and who is Partner B.  The teacher would provide Partner A with one half of the completed conversation and Partner B with the other half.  Students would take turns reading their role and filling in the page with what they hear from their partner.  Finally, students could create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting their initial ideas of the logical completion of the conversation with the full conversation they worked on with their partner.  As a follow up activity students could develop their own conversation on the same concepts for a class work or homework assignment.

Check out these ready to go activities for the French classroom:

L'École

 

Les Passe-Temps

La Jeunesse

Greetings and Salutations

How do you incorporate HOTS activities into your WL classroom?  We'd love to hear some other ideas!  Leave a comment below.

5 Tips for Using Bell-Ringers in the WL Classroom

The summer is winding down and several teachers are preparing to return to school in the United States in the next few days or weeks.  This post includes advice for getting the most out of the time you have with your students by implementing Bell-Ringers once class begins.

Research has shown over the years that Bell-Ringers are beneficial in many ways.  Namely, they help to set the tone for the students that it is time to focus and learn.  They also help students engage their prior knowledge from a previous class period.  And finally, they allow the teacher to complete daily administrative tasks that are required such as taking attendance and passing out papers.

Here are 5 tips to ponder for the upcoming school year:

1.  Have a Bell-Ringer already displayed on the white board or written on the board as students enter.  Be sure to always include an example response so students can see what is expected.  This will also eliminate students asking, "What are we supposed to do?"

2.  Be sure the Bell-Ringer takes 5 minutes or less to complete.  If the task is too complicated, students will be less likely to dive-in and respond to it.  Plus, it is important to devote other time to learning new concepts.

3.  Provide students with an answer sheet for the entire week or require them to keep their answers on one sheet of paper.  This will cut down on the amount of paper shuffling that you do during the year.  It will also encourage the students to be responsible for keeping up with their work.

4.  Take up the answer sheets on Friday or the last day that your class meets for the week.  Quickly look that the students attempted the answers and that they corrected any errors that they might have made.  This will also give you an extra opportunity to see who is struggling and needs more of your attention.  Add this assignment as a class work grade for class participation.

5.  Spice things up by playing your favorite target language music as students complete the Bell-Ringer.  Mix up the genre each day and be sure to write the artist's name on the board so students can listen to the music on their own time outside of class.  Have a rowdy class?  Play music with a slower rhythm to calm them down.  Have a class who is still asleep or drowsy?  Do the opposite and play tunes with some pep.

Here are some ready made Bell-Ringers to help save you some time and planning.

Bell Ringers for Spanish Class

French Bell-Ringers Novice Level

How do you use Bell-Ringers in your classes?

Spanish Summer School Resources

Via TeacherMemes.com

If you are like me, you love your summers. For me, it's an opportunity to travel abroad and immerse myself in the Spanish language culture. For others, it may be a time to spend with family or rest. And for others, it may be an opportunity to earn some extra income by teaching summer school. If that is the case, we'd like to make your summer easier by suggesting these resources to use during your summer class.

We hope these resources engage your summer school students, whether it be an actual academic class or just a fun, camp-like experience.


Summer Spanish Printable Book
This printable activity book contains six activities that children can do over summer break, bringing language and culture to their vacation! The resource also includes a number of links for expanding on the cultural activities. The activities are 1)Recipe for making 'Paletas de fresa, 2) Summer vocabulary word search, 3)Play 'Rayuela', 4)Travel Bingo, 5)How to Make a Paper Mola, and 6)Grocery List in Spanish.


Summer Activity Set
This product includes two fun games and a word search to welcome "el verano" in your classes. Includes a bingo game, and a Yo tengo, quien tiene game. Features summer vocabulary words such as "el buzo, la pala, el sol, el cangrejo, el pez, la careta, la pelota, la paleta, la toalla, las sandalias, el traje de baño, la estrella de mar, los lentes de sol, el helado, el castillo de arena, 
la playa, el bronceador, el flotador, la silla, la sombrilla, la concha  de caracol, el balde, el pelícano, el bote."

Alma MovieTalk Lesson
Use this engaging and suspenseful short animated video to give your students comprehensible input. Includes a reading as well as a storyboard for students to re-tell the story.

Giant Board Game- Basic Spanish Questions
Turn your classroom into a GIANT Spanish board game while helping your students practice basic questions in Spanish.
This product includes 50 printable spaces and both teacher and student instructions for game play. Also included are EDITABLE spaces where you can add additional prompts or questions to target specific units or areas of weakness for your particular group of students.

Spanish Greetings and Intro Conversation
Practice greetings, introductory conversation, and small talk with this mini-unit containing 32 task cards. Simply print them out, hang them around the room or use stations to get your students engaged and creating conversation!

Spanish Animal Vocabulary
Missing Letters Animal Vocabulary Game is a fun way for students to learn and memorize animal vocabulary in Spanish without any prep (unless you want to cut the 1/2 pages puzzles in two parts!!). Students will read the clue about the animal, look for the missing letters in the oval, and unscramble them to reveal the animal! 

Spanish Speaking Country Coloring Set
Color by number flags for all 21 Hispanic countries.
Have students color these flags to make decorations for your classroom or for their rooms at home. 

Halloween in the World Language Classroom

Are your students quickly turning into ghosts, goblins, and witches?  Has the workroom been inundated with tons of candy and chocolate?  Then odds are Halloween is coming to class!  This post will provide several activities to help you celebrate and talk about cultural comparisons when it comes to Halloween in the World Language Classroom.  Simply click on the titles to access the activities.

Free Spanish Activities
Free 10 Halloween Creatures Feelings
Free Halloween Chants in Spanish
Freebie Day of the Dead Sugarskulls
Spanish Halloween Mixed Up Sentences

High Quality Spanish Activities
Authentic Reading for Spanish Halloween
Halloween Spanish Color by Number
Halloween Printable Spanish Minibook


Free French Activities
Chat à la Pleine Lune
French Halloween Bingo
Halloween Themed Game in French

High Quality French Activities
Les Zombies Attaquent
French L'Halloween Bundle
Halloween Craft en français

Free German Activities
Halloween German Sudoku 
Bewegungspausen Halloween

High Quality German Activities
Halloween German Coloring Pages
German Halloween Madlibs

Enjoy these activities with your students!  We hope your halls will be haunted with learning!

Back to School Stock Up

Well, with back to school looming and the TeachersPayTeachers Back to School Sale scheduled for August 3rd and 4th, we thought we would highlight some items that you are going to want to put in your wishlist and check out on Monday or Tuesday.

Here they are:

Spanish Teacher Clipart

Are you tired of trying to find clipart for your Spanish materials and are flooded with images of tacos and chile peppers? Unfortunately, these images are common practice, and by using them we are denying our students a change to see the richness of the culture beyond the typical images.

Luckily, we've found a few items on teacherspayteachers that really show culture in a meaningful way:

Miss Jodi's Learning Garden has posted a 65 image set of Clip Art Cultura. This creative and colorful set includes Papel Picado, Calaveras, Serape, Fruit Cart, mate cups, cholo hats, sculptures from Botero, jars of aguas frescas as well as Mayan symbols. You're powerpoints or worksheets will come alive with culture by adding some of these awesome clipart for Spanish class.

Spanish Speaking Countries Passport Stamp Set Clipart
Set of images to represent passport stamps of all 21 Spanish Speaking Countries. Plus additional images such as Estados Unidos, Barcelona, and more!
Includes both jpeg and png files. Images are black/white and represent the culture of the country in an authentic way.










52 Backgrounds for Spanish Teachers 

Add some zing to your material with this collection of 52 colorful backgrounds specifically made with Spanish teachers in mind. They are for use with Power Point (or Keynote) presentations and they will brighten your classroom and help capture the attention of your students.

Some of the themes used are: Flags, Textiles, Fiestas, Talavera Tiles, Dancers, and Maps.


.
Looking for famous Hispanics? Check out Teacher's Cliparts's Hispanic Heritage Characters - Peronsajes Hispanos Famosos. Includes clipart versions of Shakira, Picasso, García Marquéz, Che,
Roberto Clemente, Celia Cruz, Sotomayor, Ellen Ochoa, and Frida!

HaHaHaArt has this pack of Colombia clipart which features 114 images highlighting the culture and beauty of Colombia with sombreros, musical instruments and more.

Show off the beautiful landmarks of the Spanish Speaking World with Spanish Landmarks  Clipart by Poppydreamz.

This set includes 3 versions of these sites:
Mitad Del Mundo - Ecuador
Piramide del Sol - Mexico
Galapagos Islands - Ecuador
Easter Island - Chile
Angel Falls - Venezuela
Sagrada Familia - Barcelona, Spain

Hispanic Countries Powerpoint Backgrounds
Represent the Spanish Speaking countries of Central America and South America with this cultural showcase! 20 Images to use as Powerpoint Backgrounds (Powerpoint is also included!) feature the name, capital, flag, site of interest, and "stamp" for each country.

MiraDibujos is a new store that posts clipart art specifically for Spanish teachers. From Peruvian Food, to Frida Kahlo and many more, be sure to check out their full store.

Papel Picado with the letters of the alphabet, in both uppercase and lowercase.










Know of any others?  Link it in the comments!

5 Ways to Celebrate Día de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos is coming soon! Day of the Dead is celebrated annually on November 1-2. I know that I am always looking for fresh ideas to help students understand elements of this holiday and to steer them away from thinking that the celebration is just "Mexico's Halloween". Here are 5 ideas for infusing this holiday into your classroom!

1. Share an INFOGRAPHIC: The infrographic on this website is a great visual and gives a very basic intro to how and why the holiday is celebrated. I also like that students can see where the holiday is also celebrated in the US. Review the infographic as a class or have students write down their top 3 most interesting facts which they learned from the graphic.

Who celebrates Día de los Muertos in the United States? - The Other Side of the Tortilla

2. Make PAPEL PICADO: This is a great YouTube tutorial that I used last year, and plan to use again this year. It includes a link in the description to download free templates for making your own papel picado. It turned out great and served as awesome addition to classroom decor! 

How to make Papel Picado for Day of the Dead - Dia de los Muertos!

3. Watch the making of SUGAR SKULLS: I recently came across this video clip which explains the process of making calaveras de azúcar. I found it super interesting and I'm looking forward to sharing this clip with my students to spark some discussion about the tradition.  Watch the video by clicking here.

4. Explore the elements of OFRENDAS by reading in the target language: Don't you love Pinterest? I can always find some great ideas on there. These graphics detail various elements found on ofrendas and their significance. Better yet, this is all explained in Spanish. I plan to save these these images and add them to PowerPoint slides in order to project them in class. I will then have students work in pairs or small groups to try to identify different elements. I'll have students in lower levels use their dictionaries to identify key words. Here are the links to the images on one of my Pinterest boards:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/472878029597748452/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/472878029597748462/

5. Need some ready to go ideas? I have created 2 resources that are ready to print and use in your classroom. The first is a Día de los Muertos Poster Set. Get ready for the celebration by adding these to the your classroom walls or bulletin board to spark student interest. I've also added a Día de los Muertos interactive vocabulary flip book.. Students will create a flip book of images and definitions in order to better understand important key words associated with the holiday! 

                        

          

Hope you enjoy celebrating in your classroom!

Emilie

This post was written by Emilie from Island Teacher.  

Blog link: http://www.islandteacherblog.blogspot.com/

Store link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Island-Teacher

4 Tips for Beginning World Language Teachers

I am a retired teacher with a background in teaching French, Spanish and ESL. Here are a few tips for you new teachers entering the challenging field of teaching.

1.  Have students choose a name in the target language. Students really like the chance to choose their own name. (Hold off on this until the second or third week of school to be sure you know their given names.)

2.  Don’t forget to look around your school for foreign language resources right under your nose.  ESL students, foreign exchange students, and immigrant students might enjoy visiting your class and sharing their culture. Make it one of your goals to teach an understanding and appreciation of other cultures.

3.  Students need a lot of oral drill to develop speaking skills.  It’s hard to keep those drills interesting.  Two drills I often relied upon were surveys and a game called “The Teacher Says” where students have to repeat grammatically correct sentences and fill in the blank with a logical word trying to “match” the teacher.  Below are a couple links to free products.

Freebie – Spanish –ER/-IR Verb Game – La Maestra Dice

Freebie – Jour de Neige – Snow Day Survey

4.  Another thing to do to keep your class interesting is to target multiple intelligences.  Use music, actions and visuals to liven up presentations and enhance memory.  Here is one paid product that uses visuals to drill making questions in French.

Ask the French Teacher (interrogative review game with cartoon visuals)

Best wishes for a great school year!

This post was written by Carolina Marion.  Visit her store by clicking here! 

Caroline Marion 

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month

For all you Spanish teachers out there, Oct. 15th-Nov. 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month.  Here are 10 fun, classroom activities to teach your students about the 21 Hispanic countries and famous Hispanics.  

1.  Research Project - Have your students research famous Hispanics and report back to the class using a 5 slide PowerPoint presentation.  

    Page 1: A cover slide with a picture of the person, his/her name, and birth date.

    Page 2: Why is this person famous?

    Page 3: Biographical information (family, country of origin, education)

    Page 4: Interesting facts about this person (ex. What challenges did he/she have to overcome?)

    Page 5: Some representation of the person's work (music, video clip, etc.)

2.  Map Study - Have your students learn all the Spanish speaking countries and where they are on a map OR for extra credit on a quiz, ask students to list Spanish speaking countries.

3.  Food Project - Assign each student or group of students a country.  Have them create the flag for that country, find out a few interesting facts about the country, and cook an authentic food from the country to share with the class.

4.  Daily Famous Hispanic - Every day or every few days, start class by teaching your students about a famous Hispanic.  (OR ask your students to do this and present to the class).

5.  Music - Find songs from different countries and play a song from each country at the beginning or end of class (or have the music playing while students are working).  You can ask students to find songs, too.  Younger students might like songs by José Luis Orozco.  

6.  Guest Speaker - Ask a native speaker to come to your class to talk about his/her country.  Props, accessories, and photos are welcome.

7.  Pen pals - Have your students write letters to students at a school in a Spanish speaking country.

8. Nationality Partners - To help your students learn the nationalities in Spanish, have them write 3-4 nationalities on a piece of tape or front page of their notebooks.  Then they pick a partner for each nationality and write it down.  Whenever you have activities in class, say which partners they'll be using.  Ex.  Parejas ecuatorianas  Ex. Parejas peruanas.  This ensures that they work with different people in class.  Every quarter, pick new nationalities and new partners.  Tell them that in a global economy, we need to learn to work with all different types of people.

9.  Read a Hispanic themed book and talk about cultural differences.  One of my favorites for advanced Spanish students is "Cuentos con sazón" by Lulu Delacre.  You can pick a chapter to read or read the whole thing.  Each chapter talks about a festival, celebration, or tradition from a different Hispanic country.  My students read the whole book and then write their own chapter for an end of year project.  Younger students might like "Arroz con frijoles y unos amables ratones"by Pam Muñoz Ryan.

10. Make a Hispanic craft with your students.  If you need ideas, you can check out my Pinterest page.  http://www.pinterest.com/worldlangcafe/hispanic-crafts/

 If all this sounds like a lot of work, I have created a few ready to use lesson plans for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Check out my "Famous Hispanics PowerPoint Game" and "Hispanic Flags, Interesting Facts, and Photos PowerPoint:  

Spanish Speaking Adjectives Review Game and Famous HIspanic Research Project 

HIspanic Flags, Photos, and Interesting Facts for 21 Spanish Speaking Countries

Hope you have a wonderful month with your students.  

As always, happy teaching!

This post was written by Sherry Schermerhorn.  

Visit her store!