Last year I discovered Story Listening through a wonderful teacher named Meghan Hayes and her YouTube Channel. I started using this method, and, in the summer of 2019, I had the opportunity to be in a two-day training with the creator of this method, Dr. Beniko Mason. I also had the opportunity to meet and see Meghan in action. So inspirational!
Story Listening is not just sitting to read a book to your students or using props to tell a story. Story Listening (SL) requires a process to get ready for the story. Drawing while you tell the story is a big part of it, along with providing input that is optimal (comprehensible, compelling, rich, and abundant). If you are interested in learning more about Story Listening, I highly recommend that you start by understanding the research behind this method. Here is a video of Dr. Mason talking about SL.
I also keep discovering other YouTube channels of wonderful teachers who use this method and share about it. Cécile (@towardproficiency) is one of them! She recently shared how she used the story Julián is a Mermaid***by Jesicca Love (@jesslovedraws), and Profe Valentina shared with me that she also told the story to her students. Thanks to the inspiration from these two teachers, I decided to introduce the story to my 3rd and 4th graders. Some of them had already read the book and were excited to see it in the Story Listening format!
I have gotten in the habit of sharing and talking in some depth about the author or cultures related to a story before I tell the story to my students. I find this to be much more rewarding and thoughtful for me and the students than just quickly naming an author or culture/country and proceeding to tell a story. In the case of Julián is a Mermaid, my students got to learn a little about author Jessica Love. As a follow-up activity, I often bring the books to class so they can see the beautiful illustrations too! I get a chance to talk about the book. Unfortunately, my classes are only 25 minutes long, and I try to squeeze in as much as I can while still trying to ensure I’m pacing things to give my students time to process and go along with me. I have been using SL with my home learning students via Zoom so they don’t really get to see that I “cheat” a little with my drawing. I actually draw my simple figures on sticky notes and put them on the board next to a version of the story.
As you can see in one of the pictures, my drawings are basic, but my students really love the process of me making them and then giving them a chance to try to figure it out. I have really enjoyed using SL in my classes and highly recommend that you give it a try! I invite you to bring to your students the power and magic behind Story Listening and to take a risk no matter what you feel about your own artistic talent. Students love it!
I feel so lucky to have been born in such a diverse country. At this gift-giving and reflective time of year, when I am thinking about what I want and need, I think about the advice that I’ve heard repeatedly and truly believe – that, at least for someone in the middle class like me, life experiences and travel can bring so much more happiness and fulfillment than material things. On that note, I really hope someday I have the time to travel and learn from the different cultures of Colombia. And I would love to start that journey by visiting family first. My parents are from the Caribbean coast (known in Colombia as The Coast, or “La Costa”) and moved to Cali a long time ago. I have extended family in many places in the country so planning a trip that included family connections would be a beautiful experience and allow me to learn more about my own country and heritage.
One of the ways diversity shows up in Colombia is through music. Señal Colombia is a national television channel funded and founded by the government. The channel focuses on content that reflects the different Colombian cultures and populations. The channel also has a space on YouTube. I highly recommend that you explore it if you want to learn more about my beautiful Colombia – its cultures, people, and history!
Colombia is divided into five different regions: the Pacific, Andes, Orinoco, Amazon, and Caribbean. The country is made up of 31 departments (similar to states or provinces), all ethnically distinct from one another to varying degrees. As you can see below, each region is represented in a video, but Colombia’s musical diversity goes way beyond what’s shown here in these Christmas songs.
Song: Los peces en el río. Genre: Bullerengue/chalupa. Group: Las mujeres de mi tierra. Region: Caribean- Cartagena
During this time of the year in the United States Christmas is everywhere! On TV ads, on the radio, on the cup of coffee you purchase, and more – and students and families who don’t celebrate it get over-saturated with these images and messages. It is important to offer space in our classrooms where they can breathe and have a space to share and cherish their family traditions and celebrations. Yes, this can also be done in Spanish class! I know that many of us love teaching the Burrito Sabanero song by Juanes, and I am not saying that we should stop singing those songs, but as educators, we should acknowledge other spiritualities and beliefs in our language classes too, especially in the context of such a diverse country like the United States.
Learning for Justice is a wonderful resource to use and incorporate when creating lessons for our classes. Their Social Justice Standardsare a must-see/use resource that provides a solid grounding for anti-bias education at every level. These standards provide a common language for schools to use. The standards are divided into four domains: Identity, Diversity, Justice, and Action.
I had the opportunity to dive deep into these standards during the summer when I participated in a group to rethink the social studies curriculum of the school where I currently teach. I saw that these standards work great for world language educators and, in fact, many Spanish teachers are already using them. With that in mind, I created a resource to use around this time of the year. It is also based on an experience I had last year with a student who was the only Jewish student in my first-grade class (read post here). I can’t let my own joy for Christmas sideline my students’ identities and needs.
All educators know that teaching this year is different, and since I am not seeing many of my students because they are working on asynchronous lessons, we will miss having these conversations. Hopefully, next year will be different, and I will be able to update this post. For now, I will send a short video of me talking in English and Spanish about family celebrations and assigning the activity below on Seesaw for my students to complete. Better times will come!
If you are not using Jamboard yet, you are missing an amazing tool to create interactive activities. This tool has been a lifesaver with my online students. I really like that is simple to use and that everything gets saved onto your drive and the number of activities you can create are endless. This tool is not fancy which sometimes can make it limited. You only have one font that you can use and about six different colors which actually can save you time because there are not a lot of options. If you want more complex images and fonts you can create images on PowerPoint or Canva and then upload them to Jamboard. If you want to learn more about how to create activities on Jamboard, I highly recommend you stop by Profesora Delgadillo’s blog to find some awesome tutorials and more ideas.
How Have I Used Jamboard With My Students?
I have used Jamboard with my K-5 home learning students and I teach through Zoom. With my K-2 students I have created activities where they participate by telling me which pieces to move.
For my grade 3-5 students, I have made the activities more interactive. I share the link with them in the chat on Zoom. Make sure that when you share the link you are giving them editor privileges for the Jamboard. I have small groups so I am able to duplicate the slides on Jamboard and assign slides for them to work on, but if you prepare in advance you can make the slides you need and assign a number to each of your students.
Activities That Have Worked Well in My Classes
¿Qué es?: I use this activity with my kindergarten and first-grade students. I create different slides with different pictures, and they seem to have fun knowing what’s being discovered. They tell me the numbers that I should move, and then I start taking guesses anytime I move a number.
2. Relaciona la palabra: I share the link in the Zoom chat and give different students turns to match the word with the picture.
3. Rompecabezas: I have used this with grades 2 and up! With my grade 2 students, I give them control by using the remote tool on Zoom. This gives access to the control one student at a time. Click here to watch a quick tutorial to learn how to use remote access during live classes. With older students, I share the link on the chat. You can ask them a question related to something they are learning in your class and give them turns if they answer correctly or try. You can also make multiple copies of this slide. Assign a slide to each student in your class and have them put the puzzle together as a brain break. You can find different digital puzzles on Teachers Pay Teachers. Busy Bee Studios has great ones on TpT.
4. Crea una flor: You can use this slide to ask questions, and anytime students get the correct answer you move a part of the flower to put it together.
5. ¿Dónde está el perrito?: My kindergarten students really love this activity. I make different slides and hide pictures of animals or fruit, and they need to find it. They just say the number, and I move the tile with that number.
6. Lee y relaciona: This activity works great with students in grades 3 and up! You can prepare different slides, share the link, and give turns to different students.
7. ¿Cómo estás?: This is a simple activity to check on your students and talk about emotions. Students need to use the pencil tool to complete the face. They can also use the typing tool to write the word next to it.
8. ¿Qué hiciste durante las vacaciones?: This is by far one of the activities my 4th and 5th graders enjoy. We use the laser tool to circle and talk about what we did during the break and sometimes over the weekend.
9. Tic-Tac-Toe known as triqui in some parts of Colombia, it’s always fun to play it in class!
Overall I love using Jamboard. I wish they had more choices of fonts, colors for the pencil, and the ability to lock the images so students can’t move them around. Sometimes the images get moved by accident.
Are you ready to explore Jamboard with your classes? Click here to grab all the activities above!
This year I wanted to do something more connected to nature in some of my classes for Thanksgiving, but this resource can be used any time during the school year. It’s a great and simple way to talk about gratitude with your students. I came across these two beautiful books that inspired my short story in Spanish called “Gracias Madre Tierra.”
The first book is called “Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message” by Chief Jake Swamp. If the book is not available, you can find different read alouds on YouTube, but the one below is my favorite.
It’s also a great idea to team with homeroom teachers and ask them to read the books with your students. What a beautiful way to create cross-cultural connections!
Here are some ideas that can be done in class:
Have a conversation about the true story of Thanksgiving. Hopefully, this conversation is also happening with your students’ homeroom teachers. And yes! I have this conversation in English with my students.
I have attended some conferences that start with land acknowledgments, especially the People of Color Conference. The school where I currently teach has a land acknowledgment on their website, and many other public and private institutions have one too!
Land Acknowledgement: This is usually done at the beginning of a public event to recognize and acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ land and belonging to a certain territory. It’s a way to honor and show respect to the Indigenous Peoples of the land on which we live or visit. Once you have identified whose lands you are on, you can share the information with your students. It is not necessary to use Spanish for this portion of the class, but you are of course welcome to give it a try.
Here is an idea of what you can say:
I do have to clarify that I am not an expert on this topic, but given the history of these lands, it’s important for our students to know and acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples whose lands were stolen and not to sugarcoat this issue.
Use this website to learn about the territory you live on: Native-Land.ca
Resources to learn more about Land Acknowledgement:
I am proud of this resource I created in connection with the gratitude theme. With this resource I also invite teachers to bring Land Acknowledgment to their classes, take a nature walk, and invite students to be thankful to our Madre Tierra.
