Nothing like being in the middle of a fun and engaging lesson when suddenly you have a student interrupting because he or she needs to go to the bathroom, or even worse, you have a student who you thought was raising his/her hand quietly for a while when you realized it was a request to go to the bathroom and the student had been holding it for a long time. Then the feelings of guilt flood in. Time is precious for teachers, but no one wants to cause a student pain!
I taught in a Responsive Classroom school, and using signs was part of the classroom management model. So I borrowed some ideas from the Responsible Classroom framework and have added more to fit the needs of my classroom. I also teach my students useful sentences to ask for permission to go to the bathroom or drink water in Spanish. There are times when I see the hand signal for bathroom but still ask them what they need to give them an opportunity to practice the language or I also say you need to go to the bathroom or drink water. Once I started using hand signals with my students, I felt that I was able to teach a class with less interruptions, and it was also helpful for the students who were not yet ready to use the target language. I now introduce hand signals during the first class, and we practice them to make sure that they are clear for everyone.
Recently I found a set of images that go perfectly with the hand signals I use, and I will be updating my classroom signs this fall. I am sharing them with you. I hope you find this helpful!
This is one of the most inspirational stories I have ever heard, so I’ll try my best to tell it! Someone with amazing creativity and desire to help saw a problem, that many children in the remote parts of Colombia had no access to books. Of course this not only happens in Colombia, it happens in different corners of the world, but I am sure that if Luis Soriano had the power to get to every single part of the world where a book was needed, he would be there putting a book in the hands of many children. This dedicated librarian was a third grade teacher when he started to use his two “burros” (donkeys) Alfa and Beto to bring his mobile library to the children of La Gloria, Magdalena. This region of Colombia has been forgotten and neglected for years, and it has a high rate of poverty and minimal access to education for young people. Many of the children here travel long miles to reach their schools. Luis and his two burros (donkeys) “Alfa” and “Beto” (“alphabet”) travel to see them every week, fording rivers, and walking for miles along unpaved and dusty roads, carrying books for the children. His work has been widely covered by the media, including a documentary made by PBS. Luis has gained significant fame around the word due to his creativity and desire to make change, but unfortunately his organization still needs money to survive and to continue giving access to books where children need them.
Bring the love of “El Biblioburro” to your classes! I created a set of free resources for you to use with your students. These resources are for anybody to use in their classrooms, but if you are familiar with TPRS, you will love this story!
Just click on the picture to download the story, teaching tips, worksheets and more!
Yes! The title sounds a little bit redundant, but we all have our own “ritualitos” (little rituals) that we do in every class.
I have been teaching for over 17 years now, and my experience is mostly in the United States as a Spanish teacher in a FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary School) program. Back when I was a PreK/First grade teacher in Colombia, I rarely felt that I was getting into a routine, which I equated with a rut or “getting bored” of doing the same things in class over and over. And while teaching in a world language program means you need to have a lot of repetition to help your students retain the language, this doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing every class!
When teaching in a world language program at the elementary level, we have to make sure we provide a sense of routine in the class to create a safe space for the children. I strongly believe in teaching in the target language as much as you can, which means having to use the language a lot and at the proficiency level of your students. This can sometimes limit the amount of activities you can do to vary your routine.
Here is a list of routines I do in my class. Please feel free to add more in the comments below! I would love to hear yours!
I always start my class with the “Plan de la clase” which tells my students what will be happening in class. I go over it with them and keep it very simple. This also can eliminate the stress in some of the anxious students who need to know what will be happening in class.
This is an example of how it might look depending on the grade level. The message below is for a second grade class, and I see them only twice a week for a 40-minute period each time. You can decide how to have the class read it. You can have one volunteer read the message or the whole class may read it together.
Plan de la clase
1. Saludos: ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?
2. El calendario
3. Canción: La familia sapo
4. ¡Vamos a jugar!: Pasa la bola
5. Describe a tu familia: ¿Cómo es tu familia?
6. Tiquete de salida
Since greetings are a key aspect of world language classes, here are some ideas to greet your students:
1. Try to change the greetings. One day you can use ¿Como estás? and then the other day “¿Qué tal?”.
2. You can pass a ball to students in class and ask the question yourself.
You can give turns to the children to respond and then pass the ball to the next person, and the child who responded will take a turn asking.
3. You can divide the class in pairs where one student asks then the other responds and vice versa.
4. You can divide the class into teams, one side answers and the other responds.
5. You can use puppets and let your students improvise their greetings for the class.
6. Play music in the classroom, have your students dance to the music, stop the music and choose a volunteer to greet the class. For example, “clase, ¿cómo estás?”
7. Place a picture of a famous person or movie character with information about themselves (see picture below). You can read this information to your students, then give turns for them to introduce themselves to the character or famous person by sharing the same information. See more here!
8. Place a simple picture that your students will have to use to complete their face. They can take turns doing this. Download the picture here!
9. Start with a Zumba or dancing routine to get everyone into the Spanish mood.
10. Use “brain breaks” during the routine or any time you see your students need help focusing and tuning again into class.
11. Read the days of the week with a feeling for each day. Find the picture here!
12. Make your calendar interactive. If you have an interactive board or a projector, a computer connected to the internet, take advantage of it and add a cultural/geographic aspect comparing seasons, temperatures and weather to your calendar. My students always love guessing what the temperature could be like in Colombia or any other Spanish-speaking country.
To add a more adventurous part, take a trip to any of the Spanish-speaking countries using Google Earth! Also check out my “Facebook Corner” for more ideas on routines for Spanish class!
I have to admit that I didn’t know anything about “El Día de los Muertos” until I moved from Colombia to the United States. In the first Spanish program in which I taught, cultural traditions and celebrations were not part of the curriculum. This was mainly due to the limited time we had with our students. Without the ability to engage deeply, we were afraid of passing down wrong information or stereotypes of other cultures to them. After a few years of teaching in this school district, I moved to another school district where the program was richly infused with cultural celebrations. “El Día de los Muertos” was an important feature, and the children were really engaged in various aspects of it in ways that made it a comprehensive cultural exploration for elementary level students. And yes, it took me a while to get comfortable with this celebration, but I still wasn’t 100% excited to be teaching this to my students.
And just as life changes and people move, I moved to a different neighborhood and changed schools again. This time, I was at a school where a big part of my job was to help create the K-3 Spanish curriculum , but still El Día de los Muertos wasn’t my top choice to include in it. I also felt that, being Colombian, I had an obligation to teach and share about my own culture. After about two years in this program, I heard conversations of students explaining El Día de los Muertos as simply the way Halloween is celebrated in Mexico. My heart sank, and then it jumped with adrenaline as I had a flashing thought that I was missing an awesome opportunity to share with students the real meaning of this celebration. Not to blame them, but everywhere they go, many of the icons such as calacas, catrinas and catrines are displayed in the Halloween aisles in many of the big stores. They are now part of Halloween costumes and even an excuse to have “Day of the Dead” fiestas. I am also guilty of buying the decorations and bringing them to my classroom, and of course, hiding the label that shows that they were made in China, not in Mexico.
The celebration deserves room in the curriculum of Spanish teachers. We, the community Spanish teachers, have a responsibility to educate our school community about the importance of this beautiful celebration, especially given the fact that it was just recently included in the “List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO.
We also have to remember that as world language teachers we should help our students (and each other) to understand other cultures are well prepared to be good citizens of the world!
As a good starting point, I put together a PowerPoint that I use to introduce the celebration to my 2nd and 3rd grade students. I am now sharing it, and you are welcome to download it and adapt it to your needs. Please note that I don’t own any of the pictures in the PowerPoint. If you share the resource, I would appreciate if you give credit to my blog.
Click here or on picture to download presentation!
Conversaciones de maestros en nuestra página de Facebook
Angelica says:
“I was working for a small school, so when it came to grading, I only graded 15 students. The teacher usually handed me the forms and it was with numbers 1-4
Well….now I am working at a big private school. I got hired at the middle of the second trimester, so we decided to only grade the last trimester. My question is: When it comes to grading a Spanish class is there any grading rubric that you follow? Do you make your own? I want to send a little note home that says something about their learning since I began there. The grades that I teach are K-8. ¡Gracias!”
Familia Botero:I also teach k-8. For every unit i create goals. These are the “notes” i share w parents. For grading purposes, every class period students get a participation grade. They also get grades in completing projects. I create worksheets we use in class. Some of our worksheets can be colored so i assign it as “homewor ( at the lower levels) so they understand spanish js a “real” class.
Upper levels have projects and activities that allow me to grade their work.
My principal and I agreed that participation on the lower levels would be the biggest chunk of their grade. Hope this helps. Reply to my comment if you want any more details
Patty: Following!
Jenn:This is a great question. We don’t have anything on our report card at all yet, so are really looking for the same info.What about aligning them to “can do statements”?
Heidi : We are using “can do” statements, but our computerized report card morphs those into speaking, listening, reading, and writing. I use a common curriculum and assessments and attach a cover letter to each test I send home with general info about the unit.
Christine: I do 50% homework/class participation and 50% tests/quizzes/projects for grades 5-8. For grades 3 & 4 I assign points to most work done in class because I don’t give homework or tests. Thankfully I don’t have to give grades to the little ones at all.
Simone : The “can do” type statements that come with the authentic assessment charts in the Sonrisas Spanish school books are great.
¡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.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
