Summer brings a variety of online and in-person professional development opportunities for World Language educators. These sessions are organized by various organizations and companies. I will be participating as a presenter in some of these sessions, and I have also presented at some in the past. These conferences offer a wide range of topics and presenters.
If you are new to comprehension-based teaching or would like to refresh your knowledge and gain new ideas for the upcoming school year, the CI-Reboot conference is perfect for you! It offers both pre-recorded and live sessions, so if you can’t attend in person, you can watch the videos later. Here are some of the topics that will be covered during the conference, with a diverse range of presenters each day:
Pre-conference: June 24 – 28 Sunday, July 7: The Fundamentals of CI/TPRS (What is CI Teaching? TPR, TPRS, CI Basics, SLA Theory) Monday, July 8: Backward Planning, Teaching Reading, FVR (Self-selected independent reading) Tuesday, July 9: Sheltered Subject Matter Teaching (All content) – What content are we teaching? Wednesday, July 10: Classroom Management, Classroom Set-up, Assessment Thursday, July 11: Advanced CI, Upper Levels, The Big Picture
If you would like to register for the conference, make sure to use THIS LINK, which provides a $10 discount for my readers. Valentina Correa and I will be presenting on July 7th about Using Comprehensible Stories to Spark Change.
Another excellent event for World Language educators is the World Language Teacher Summit – Back to School Conference. Teachers can attend this conference for free during the designated period – register here. I truly appreciate this complimentary professional development opportunity.
The conference will be held from July 22nd to 26th, with each presentation available for free for 48 hours. If you cannot attend during that week, don’t worry! You can upgrade to the All-Access Pass, which provides unlimited access to the entire event and exclusive bonuses. If you register for the free conference using my link and later decide to purchase the All-Access Pass, I will receive a commission. Also, don’t forget to register to receive the Playbook and learn about the presenters and topics.
I will also be presenting at the KLETT WL Conference. The registration for this conference is open from now until the end of September. Video access begins on August 1, and you will have three months of access from the date of registration to watch the sessions at your own pace.
Because I enjoy sharing at regional conferences, I submitted a proposal to present at MaFLA this fall, and it was accepted! I’m really looking forward to connecting with teachers in person. Presenting not only brings me joy but also helps me continue growing as a teacher and motivates me to improve my practices.
Last but not least, if you are looking for in-person professional development opportunities tailored to your needs, let’s work together and create a plan that suits you or your department perfectly! Visit this link to contact me.
Which professional development opportunities will you be attending this summer?
Creating stories with novice learners could be challenging but not impossible if you provide the language and a template for them to complete. Although they are not completely coming up with the details for the story, giving them this support provides them with a sense of autonomy in the target language. Rolling stories have become an all-time favorite activity for my second and third graders; the best part is that this can be done in just one class. My classes don’t last more than 45 minutes, so during this time, students get to create the story and illustrate it. This activity is so simple that students can decide to do it in groups or on their own, and now we have stories for different seasons and celebrations.
What do you need in order to roll a story?
Story Template: This guide includes sections for the type of character, color, emotion, place where they live, and what they like to do.
Dice: Using dice adds randomness and creativity to storytelling. Students roll to determine story elements.
Additional Story Template: This optional tool provides extra structure, which is especially helpful for younger students. It maximizes class time and relieves students from writing from scratch, which could be overwhelming for many younger students.
Flashcards with articles:Believe it or not, this question has come up in my second-grade classes, and it has been an opportunity to talk about definite and indefinite articles. That’s why I now support this with visuals when writing these little and short stories.
Once students have completed their stories, they illustrate them. I like keeping them in the notebooks. In the next class, I use a document camera to read their stories and ask questions about them. Some students might have the same stories, but believe it or not, they all want to hear them. I also expand by using their illustrations to talk about the stories. Rolling stories has to be one of my favorite stand alone activities that are engaging and meaningful.
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!
A short story can be used in more than one class! There are many activities you can engage in after telling or reading a short story. Here are ideas some that will help you maximize short stories:
Start by Introducing the Characters of the Story: If possible, print the characters and discuss details such as sizes, colors, ages, and so on. Create gestures for each character and use TPR to introduce them if the characters are animals.
Tell the Story: There are various ways to narrate a story. You can draw the story, use props, or read it aloud.
Retell the Story: Utilize pictures from the story to recount it, and pose questions about it. Depending on your students’ proficiency levels, you can ask yes-or-no questions like “¿Hay un cerdo? ¿Sí o no?”, make statements where students complete your sentences, such as “El muñeco de nieve está ______.” or ask open-ended questions like “¿Por qué está triste el muñeco de nieve?”
Play Games That Connect to The Story: Incorporate guessing games, memory games, and more! For instance, in the case of this story, students can find under which number there is a nose for “el muñeco de nieve.”
And Don’t Forget to Play Matamoscas: “Matamoscas,” or “flyswatter” in English, is an easy game to play. Divide the class into two teams and give each team a flyswatter. Display words or pictures related to the story on a board. Speak a word or describe a picture in Spanish, and players must quickly find and hit it with their flyswatter.
Act it Out: Print out props and take turns allowing your students to act out the story. This is a fun and engaging way to provide repetition. With elementary students, it works best if the teacher narrates the story.
Use Mini-Books: Have your students color the mini-books and share them with their families and/or caregivers, or simply keep the story to read it.
Storyboards: Storyboards are excellent for helping students understand the main ideas of the story. They not only reinforce vocabulary but also check comprehension.
What other activities would you add or use when incorporating short stories into your classes?
Returning to school after the winter break can be a challenging experience, not only for teachers but also for students, as both often feel fatigued and out of their regular routines. My recommendation is to keep it simple and introduce engaging activities that can be completed within a single class period.
Here are some ideas for what you can do on the first class after the break:
Roll a Story: 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 can download it here.
Roll a Monster: Your students just need dice, a template with different parts for the monster, a page for students to draw and color, pencils, and to get ready to roll the dice to create monsters. Find it here!
Colgadores para puertas: It’s a simple and relaxing activity for the first days of the new year. Just print it and give it to your students for coloring and cutting out. Download it here.
Color by Code Winter Pages: This is one of the most low-key activities. Just print the pages and let your students color! Find this resource on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Calendar Talk: Download this calendar template and use it to fill out with your students the different holidays and celebrations in January. Don’t forget to add birthdays!
