Let me start with my own story! ONCE UPON A TIME… I used to be a teacher who relied heavily on vocabulary lists and checklists of what my students needed to memorize. For example, my third graders were required to name five fruits, five animals, school supplies, and places in the community, among other things. All these vocabulary words were disconnected and lacked context. I also expected my students to remember these words indefinitely and use them the following year. This often left me feeling frustrated, and I blamed my students for not retaining words they had only heard during the fruit unit.
Everything changed when I started teaching with stories. I began to focus on high-frequency and useful phrases and language. Instead of just concentrating on the five-word fruit unit, I told stories where students not only learned the names of the fruits but also how to express likes and dislikes while following a plot in the target language. These stories were simple, engaging, and provided the necessary repetition for my students to acquire the language, not just learn it.
As a teacher, I felt my teaching toolkit was rejuvenated. I discovered different ways to bring stories to life for my students—through pictures, short clips, picture books, co-creating stories, songs, or short stories I created for them. I didn’t switch to teaching with stories overnight. I started gradually, and with practice, I became more confident in integrating more stories into the various grades I teach. Now, I can proudly say that my curriculum is 90% story-based.
I remember that the first story I told my students was the picture book Froggy Gets Dressed (Froggy se viste). I first read the story and then retold it using props. The story was so repetitive that by the end, they were repeating it with me. From there, I started incorporating more and more stories, and now I have a full repertoire.
The best part of teaching with stories is that it gives you the flexibility and creativity to make language acquisition an enjoyable process for your students. Your students are more likely to acquire the language when they experience it in context, which makes all the difference. Bringing stories to your students can also broaden their horizons and allow them to learn about themselves and others because through stories, you can also bring culture and teach life lessons. Stories naturally incorporate varied vocabulary and grammar, providing a meaningful context for language use.
Are you ready to start using stories in your classroom? Remember to start little by little, ensure that you feel connected to the story, and practice before bringing it to class! And remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect; with practice, you’ll become more confident and proficient at telling stories!
As an elementary Spanish teacher with limited class time, finding ways to keep students engaged and motivated is key so we can get the most out of our time together, and as a teacher, I’m able to support and facilitate their language acquisition journey better.
Here are some useful tips to keep your students’ motivation going:
Understand the age group you are teaching
I highly recommend the “Yardsticks” book by Responsive Classroom, which outlines developmental traits and interests of children according to their age.
Understand the proficiency level of your students
This will help you develop goals that support their acquisition journey. Visit the ACTFL website to download the updated Proficiency Guidelines.
Make sure that your activities support the different modes of communication
Remember that students acquire language at different paces and that in one class you might have students who are at different proficiency levels. Including activities with different communication modes ( Interpersonal, Interpretative and Presentational) will reach out to different students.
Connect with your students
Building a strong teacher-student bond should extend beyond the initial weeks of the school year. Continuously engage with your students by learning about their interests, hobbies, and family celebrations, and incorporate these aspects into your lessons. Bring topics that are relevant to their age group too!
Use Comprehensible Input
Students need to be able to understand the language, but also the language have to be challenging to support and help students move beyond their current proficiency level. Not only comprehensible input but also compelling! Making sure that the input is interesting for the students. Visit Dr. Stephen Krashen’s website to read more about comprehensible input. You can also explore comprehensible input strategies and methods in this post.
Use Stories
Stories are super useful for teaching languages because they make learners feel things, give them real-life situations to learn from, show them how people actually talk, help them connect emotionally, and demonstrate different ways to use language. All of this makes learning easier and more comfortable. After listening to stories, students can act out scenes or pretend to be characters, which keeps them interested and involved.
Use Games
Bring games to your classes, especially non-competitive games .Explore options like memory games and bingo, which integrate vocabulary, phrases, or story sentences. These activities are easy to set up and can even be tailored to your students’ preferences. Movement-based games like Four Corners and A mí también add an extra layer of fun. Additionally, Total Physical Response (TPR) games such as Follow the Leader, Simon Says, and Charades are highly effective for language learning. Find different types of game in this blog!
Every year comes with its share of highs and lows, and though this particular year brought its challenges, I’m grateful to say that I’m in good health. I’ve found immense joy in conducting training sessions for teachers, and I hope the coming year will bring even more opportunities for me to do so.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to continue using my blog as my primary platform for sharing my experiences. While I have a presence on other social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, I believe my blog allows me to provide deeper insights and support to others.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your presence and support. Thank you for being a part of this journey. and wish you peace for the new year.
Here are the top three most visited posts on my blog this year:
1. Activities to Foster Mindfulness in the Spanish Classroom
From calming breathing exercises to mindful storytelling in Spanish, this post covers practical and creative ideas to help your students develop essential life skills while improving their language proficiency.
Explore exciting activities and strategies that will help your students gain vocabulary and confidence. Whether you’re a new or experienced teacher, this post provides valuable insights and practical ideas to add enthusiasm to your Spanish lesson
3. Story Asking in the Elementary Classroom
Create engaging stories with your students effortlessly! This post offers valuable tips for incorporating story asking into your lessons.
I’m always grateful for all the readers here! Thank you for your support in this blogging adventure. Wishing you a Feliz Año Nuevo!
There are several things that can be done after telling or reading stories to young students. Here are just a few:
Picture Talk
Choose some pictures or illustrations from the story and discuss them with your students. Ask questions about what they see. For example, inquire about the type of animal depicted, whether it’s a cat or a turkey, its color, the sounds it makes, and its current location in the story.
Use TPR (Total Physical Response)
Identify key vocabulary words in the story. This can be done before or after reading. Create flashcards, use gestures, or provide simple definitions to help students understand and remember new words. Introduce interactive games such as the freeze dance game, where you play music, students dance or move around the room, and when the music stops, you call out a word, prompting students to perform the corresponding gesture. Alternatively, engage them in a game of charades!
Act It Out
Allow students to act out parts of the story through role-playing or dramatization. This not only reinforces comprehension but is also excellent for repetition. Another option is to provide your students with props to act out the story.
Drawings
Ask students to draw their favorite parts and use their pictures to retell the stories. You can also encourage them to complete drawings related to the stories and use these as conversation starters.
Play Games
You can look for games that support the story. For example, in the story “Pavo prepara su pastel”, my students and I love playing the hot-cold game with a soft toy turkey.
How do we play the game? One student leaves the room, and we hide the turkey somewhere in the room. Then, the student returns to the room, and we help them find the turkey by saying “frío”when they are far away, “tibio” when getting closer, and “caliente” when the student is next to it.
Read the Story Again Changing Your Voice
Use different tones and pitches to portray different characters in the story. This adds excitement and helps maintain the children’s interest. Additionally, ask your students to choose an emotion for you to incorporate while reading the story, such as happy, sad, or crying.
Add More Extension Activities
Encourage students to write or create their own endings, or craft simple projects related to the story. If possible, provide your students with mini-books containing versions of the stories that they can take home and share with their families!
The “Roll a Story” activity is an engaging and easy-to-use activity that is excellent for providing input at the novice or beginner levels. You will need dice and a “Roll A Story” template with predetermined details. This template includes words and pictures, making it more accessible for lower elementary students. This activity can be done individually, in groups, or as a whole class.
Students take turns rolling the die, with each roll representing a sentence in the story.Students can write the story in their notebooks or complete a template, as seen below.
After your students have finished rolling their stories, encourage them to create an illustration to go along with it. If students worked in small groups, have them share their stories, or you can read them aloud to the class. Take this opportunity to pause and ask questions about their stories.
Have you ever wondered why your students seem to struggle with retaining the vocabulary you teach them? Or why they sometimes lack interest and motivation when learning new words in your classes? You’re not alone in this struggle. In the exciting world language teaching, making vocabulary come to life can be both an intriguing and achievable challenge. This webinar was hosted and made possible by Klett World Languages. My colleague and friend, Valentina Correa, and I share some tips that have helped us support our students in their language acquisition journey.
In this webinar, we offer practical tools and creative approaches to make vocabulary an integral and exciting part of the language acquisition process. Effective vocabulary teaching goes beyond the simple memorization of words; it’s about arousing curiosity, presenting content that your students can connect with, and promoting communication while respecting their individual process of acquiring the target language. If you’ve felt frustrated due to your students’ lack of retention and motivation, this webinar will provide you with some tools that will assist you in tackling these challenges.
I invite you to relax and enjoy this webinar, which will help you gain new ideas or refresh past ones!
Enjoy!
Don’t have time to watch it right now? Click on the picture to save it for later!
¡Hola! I am Carolina, a Colombian elementary Spanish teacher based in Boston, MA. Fun for Spanish Teachers is the result of my passion for teaching Spanish to children and my desire to inspire collaboration and creativity in a vibrant teaching and learning community. It’s the perfect stop if you are looking for songs, games, teaching tips, stories, and fun for your classes.
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