Escape rooms are a popular activity that have now been modified for educational use. Breakout EDU has resources, lock box kits and other tools on their site. You can also create your own breakout box with items from Amazon.com. There are Facebook groups related to Breakout EDU and there is one called Breakout en español. They are a fantastic resource. And, if you don’t have access to an actual breakout kit, there is a digital breakout sandbox with ready made digital activities. You can also create a digital breakout of your own (see my blog post for some tips on how to create your own digital breakout).
I was Inspired by Breakout EDU and Martina Bex’s El Gordo Lottery Breakout. I decided to have my students create their own breakout puzzles for the novel ‘Felipe Alou: Desde los valles a las montañas’. I then put them together, creating a locked Google Form and a Google Site. We ended up with enough puzzles to create three separate games. During that class, the students worked in groups to ‘breakout’ - choosing which game to play. I had three classes reading the novel, so I mixed up the clues so no one class had the clues they created on a single game. My students were quite creative and some of their clues were a bit elaborate. So, I decided to use their ideas as inspiration and create my own breakout game. I wowed them with conditional formatting on Google Sheets to create a ‘color lock’. I created some new puzzles and now I am ready to share it with the world. Without further ado, here is the link to the breakout I created for the Spanish version of the Felipe Alou novel by Carol Gaab, published by Fluency Matters. Felipe Alou Breakout Feel free to contact me or let me know in the comments if you have any questions. Hope it is useful!
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What could these two things have in common? Honestly, until a couple of weeks ago, I had never thought about the two together. But, here I am, almost three weeks post-op from foot surgery contemplating just this. Acquiring a language is not like any other subject matter taught in schools (paraphrasing Bill VanPatten). It can look ‘messy’. In the beginning stages, there are struggles and good days. And, because everyone is different, the acquisition process does not look exactly the same for everyone. The same apparently goes for foot surgery. The healing process is different for everyone. And, little setbacks can change the course of recovery. Because of the surgery, I was put on antibiotics to prevent infection. Up to that point, I had never had an allergic reaction to medication of any kind. Well, this time was different. I ended up having a fairly significant allergic reaction. That resulted in a trip to urgent care as well as steroid and antihistamine shots. The inflammation caused some issues with the surgical incisions and resulted in some delay in healing. My recovery has been a bit bumpier than I had anticipated. Since I teach the Advanced Placement Spanish Language & Culture course at my school, I felt pressure (mostly in my own head) to return to work as quickly as possible with the AP exam quickly approaching in early May. I had the surgery on April 7, the day before spring break, in order to minimize my time absent. You might say I could have simply waited until after the AP exam or the summer to fix my painful foot issue (I do stand for a living). I generally am not great at putting myself first - most teachers tend to me ‘givers’. This time, I decided to take care of myself to improve my own quality of life long term. I also have two children of my own, and being a bit immobile in the summer would present a whole host of challenges. I had to consider my husband’s ability to take time off so I would have help at home early on. So, I strategically chose the date of my procedure. I had initially thought of coming back to work the day we returned from break. Despite my doctor’s advice of taking at least one month off. My allergic reaction delayed that. I had agreed to present a technology workshop with a colleague the second day after break, so I didn’t want to let him down. I also didn’t want to not be there for my students who were gearing up for the AP exam. As a general rule, I hate being out as a teacher, because it is usually more work to be absent than at school. I know many teachers who feel the same way. Luckily, technology and being a 1:1 school helped me stay connected to my students while being out. Thanks to MacBooks and Google, I was able to make screencasts with audio for my AP students to work with and then share them via Google Classroom. They were also able to record for me with these tools and Flipgrid. I loved seeing their videos - they seriously cheered me up as I was a touch frustrated having to be out for follow up appointments, etc. For my ninth graders, I purchased several activities from Martina Bex’s teachers pay teachers store which provided compelling comprehensible input in the target language in my absence. It turns out my students would survive without me for a brief time (even though we all like to think we are irreplaceable). We are fortunate that we have so many resources to leave our students with worthwhile, comprehensible input when we need to be out. Many of us teachers end up being out for health reasons, family leave, etc. I love teaching. I miss it when I am absent. And, having come back a bit soon, without being able to get around the way I normally do, has been interesting. I am a teacher who is constantly moving about the room. Right now I cannot do that. But, in a few weeks things should be closer to normal again. I just have to have some patience. Just don’t tell my doctor I came back to work too soon. Just a short post and homage to Twitter. If you view my Twitter profile, it states I joined in March 2013. I had heard that Twitter was a way to make connections with other educators. It is also a way to get some swift action from customer service from companies such as Verizon. I had heard about #langchat, a weekly chat on all things related to language teaching. But, I must confess, I didn’t actually know how to participate in a Twitter chat. As it turns out, it actually isn’t that complicated (see here if you’re new to Twitter). Unfortunately, I didn’t figure that out for myself until more than 2 years after joining Twitter. They do say better late, than never. I am so glad I am on Twitter and harnessing it for my own professional growth.
Because of Twitter, I have been able to connect with bloggers I had been following for years. I was able to connect with the publisher of some of my favorite novels for language learners, educational trainers and tech coaches (I discovered #BookSnaps via Twitter and their fabulous creator - Tara Martin). Now, #BookSnaps are one of my ‘go-to’ strategies for reflection in my classes. I was also able to connect with the authors of a book that I found so inspiring, that I decided to run a virtual book club for teachers in my district (You can buy “Start. Right. Now.” on Amazon). The book club format was reflection via #BookSnaps (I blogged #BookSnaps here & here) Tara was kind enough to make a video for the teachers in my book club. As a result of her awesome idea, I have an opportunity to present at the South Brunswick Learning and Technology Conference this summer. If you are in or around NJ, it looks to be a great PD opportunity. Here are some of my favorite Twitter users to follow if you are interested in language learning, education and/or edtech ideas: @JenFischer18 (my favorite tech coach) @TaraMartinEDU (creator of #BookSnaps) @ProficiencyPath (great ideas around teaching language for proficiency) @SraSpanglish (PBL extraordinaire and a lovely person who I was lucky to meet recently in person) @Placido (author of several novels for language learners) @SECottrell (the voice behind one of my favorite blogs - Musicuentos) @dowd124 (awesome NJ teacher leading the way with teaching with CI in NJ) @ToddWhitaker (author of ‘Start. Right. Now.’) @casas_jimmy (author of ‘Start. Right. Now.’) @Jeff_Zoul (author of ‘Start. Right. Now.’) And, of course, I’d love for you to follow me @kkeefe_hassan - making new connections on Twitter has become one of my new favorite pastimes. Let me know who you follow on Twitter in the comments. And, if you are not already on Twitter, you need to be. Get on that, right now! In January, while on Twitter, I came across an education book called Start. Right. Now. I purchased the eBook and began reading. It was so positive and really made want to challenge myself. I have decided to take some of what I learned from reading Start. Right. Now. by Todd Whitaker, Jeff Zoul & Jimmy Casas. There were so many things that grabbed my attention. My focus is to “grow each day”. With that in mind, I decided to try some new things. Because I enjoyed the book so much, I am facilitating a virtual book club on it through the staff development department in my district. I set out to do this not even sure if anyone would sign up. A few friends of mine were the first to sign up. Now, there are nineteen educators (many of whom I had never met before) in my district signed up and we just began our first week of discussion. It is already a very lively and active group. The conversation has gone beyond our little Google Classroom and spread to Twitter. I am beyond thrilled that I decided to try something new and go for it. I am learning as much as, if not more than, my book club members. Reading the book a second time has also given my new insights. If you are an educator, you should start reading this book right now (sorry, I couldn’t help but be cheesy there!) It was just a couple of months ago that I started blogging. I am finding my ‘blogger voice’ and I couldn’t believe that when I posted about creating digital breakouts, I had over one thousand people read my post. And, even more gratifying was having one of my blog posts published on the CI Peek Blog by Fluency Matters. Check it out here. And, if you are a language teacher and not subscribed to this blog, get on that! This school year has been one where I have been seeking the ‘joy’ in my teaching. (While at home with a pretty awful sinus infection, I binge watched some old episodes of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and in one episode, a doctor who serves as a leader/teacher/mentor to the younger doctors on the show was telling them to find the joy. Funny how that struck me to be so relevant.) I have been moving towards a more comprehensible input based classroom. I started using Fluency Matters novels in my ninth grade classes. My students are acquiring more language, without even realizing it. I have nearly abandoned homework (thank you Alice Keeler). In my AP Spanish Language classes, Friday’s are now ‘Book Club Friday’s’. There are no tests on our book club books. Just focused collaborative group work in class. Sometimes it is #BookSnaps (thank you Tara Martin), sometimes discussion and comprehension questions to guide them (thank you Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell for your amazing eBook guides for Cajas de cartón & La Ciudad de las Bestias) or group reflections with endless creative options (this week, I have students who are creating screencasts & writing raps - the rap idea came from them!) What I find amazing about these Friday’s is that they pretty much run themselves. Of course, I go around to different groups and interact, but I was home sick last Friday and things went just as smoothly with a substitute. The best part is that my students are reading in Spanish and enjoying it without worrying about a quiz or test. Tech coach extraordinaire Jen Fischer has been offering ‘drive through PD’ weekly in the school library, so I have been checking in to hear about new tech tools. About two weeks ago, the topic was Flipgrid. If you have not tried out Flipgrid yet, I suggest you do. I currently have Flipgrid One (the free product) and the teacher sets up a topic (this can be written or include a video) and students get a link which can be shared on a LMS like Google Classroom. They open the link, click “add a response” and record a video of themselves (for up to 90 seconds), using Flipgrid and the camera on their computer, responding to the topic. Once the video is recorded, they can then take a thumbnail photo to go along with it. Unlike submitting individual recordings via a platform like Google Classroom where only the teacher would have access to them, all students can see the videos of their classmates and ‘like’ them (this is similar to what most of our students do on social media sites like Instagram). Initially I was concerned that my students might not want to share with their peers this way. As it turns out, they LOVED it. The videos were adorable. And, I had students begging for more. The prep work for this is minimal. So, more they shall have! I used it as a way for students to react to the documentary we just watched called ‘Landfill Harmonic’ (which is currently being shown on HBO Latino). If you have never heard of this orchestra from Paraguay, consisting of children playing instruments constructed from recycled trash, check out the YouTube video below - it is phenomenal. The sound that came from the oil can cello is unbelievable and comes in the first ninety seconds. Hoping to keep the positivity coming. I will continue sharing about my journey here. And, if you’re looking to try something new, start right now - ok, I will stop doing that!
BreakoutEDU is becoming hugely popular in classrooms. Who doesn’t enjoy a good puzzle or game? I am sure there is something special about having a physical box with a variety of locks to open. BreakoutEdu sells a lock kit, though there is a wait to obtain one. You can also opt to put your own kit together with items from sites like Amazon. There is another option. BreakoutEDU’s site has a section for digital games. You can try one out there to see what it is like. There aren’t too many digital options for Spanish class available yet, though. On Teachers Pay Teachers, Martina Bex has four free Breakout activities. I used this one about the 2016 ad for the Christmas Lottery in Spain without a box and locks. I do work in a 1:1 district, so all of my students have MacBooks and access to the G-Suite for Education. I created a ‘locked’ Google Form so my students could play the game and printed Martina's materials. It might be easiest to start out with a game that has been created. But, if you want to create your own clues based on your content, a digital game has no limitations as far as the numbers or letters you can use for a 'lock'. If you are creating your own game, you probably want to create a new Google Site for the game. You can give it a title, and use it as a place to put your clues, pictures, videos, etc, that are needed to play your game. I like Google Sites because it is very simple to 'drag and drop', and you can easily add anything from your Google Drive or YouTube to the page. You can also put your 'locked' Form on the site. Most of my clues are done on Slides, Docs, Drawings or Sheets. The trick with sharing these types of clues is to make sure they cannot be edited by those playing the game. I like to use Slides to make a 'story map' type clue for a directional lock. Docs are good for simple question type clues. When using Slides or Docs, I make sure that I change the share settings to 'anyone with the link can view'. (See below) If you want to create a clue using Google Drawings (this is a great way to make sequencing clues or or for clues that involve unscrambling sentences/questions) or Sheets (conditional formatting makes for a cool 'color lock' - if you put in a few content related questions, the cells will change color when the correct answer is typed in) - there is a way to share these on a Google site that forces the person with the link to 'make a copy'. This way, students can re-arrange words in Drawings or type in answers to questions on Sheets without editing your original clue. To do this, you need to allow anyone with the link to edit the Drawing or Sheet. (I know, this sounds crazy, just stay with me.) Then, copy and paste the shareable link into your browser. This last step is the most important. Change where it says 'edit?usp=sharing' at the end of the link to 'copy'. This forces anyone with the link to make a copy. Then, they can answer questions on Sheets, manipulate items in Drawings, yet not change what you originally created. (Special shout-out to my awesome tech coach Jen Fischer for sharing this 'hack' with me. Her blog is also awesome & you should check it out!) You put the link with 'copy' at the end right onto your Google Site. Or, get even more fancy and have the link hidden by a picture on the site. When someone clicks on the picture, they will go to the page that has them make a copy that they can edit. Once you find a Breakout game to use or have created your own clues and put them on your Google site, you will need to make a new Google Form. Each question on your form is one of your locks. You want to create 'short answer questions' and make sure they are 'required'. To lock your form you need to use 'data validation' to require the correct answer. If an incorrect answer is typed, they will see an error message of your choosing. Data validation can be found by clicking the three dots at the bottom of your question (see below). You can use data validation to make sure you have an exact number for a number lock and specific text for a word, directional or color lock. Here is a great YouTube video that explains how to make a 'locked Google Form. The last step, before putting your form on your Google Site (or sending it out to students), is to click on settings (the little gear at the top of your Form), click on 'Presentation' and add a confirmation message. This way, students can show you they 'unlocked' the form. I hope this is helpful. Feel free to ask questions or share your ideas in the comments. You can also contact me on Twitter )@kkeefe_hassan - I will get back to you!
Overheard in one of my ninth grade classes this week, “Why don’t we ever do anything ‘normal’ in this class?” I’m not sure this was meant to be a compliment, but I am going to take it as one. Most people who know me well would probably say that I do things my own way. I often am a bit ‘outside of the box’. In fact, I sometimes find myself so far outside the box, that I can’t even see the box. If you were to walk into my classroom, it is unlikely to be quiet. It tends to be noisy, whether we are talking as a class, music is playing or there is pair or group work happening. So, what is actually going on? Depends on the day. Last summer, I was looking for a way to start out the school year (having essentially ditched my textbook) that would be interesting to my ninth graders who have had Spanish before in middle school and weekly in elementary school. In my search for inspiration, I first came across some ideas from Kristy Placido on her blog about starting off the school year. Off to Teachers Pay Teachers I went and purchased her Bingo Humano activity and her 4 Corners Posters. They both worked as great ice breakers with my students. After getting to know my students a bit, I wanted to do something compelling and engaging. I read this post by Allison Wienhold on her awesome blog, Mis clases locas. I decided to use Allison’s idea and instead of starting off with a ‘review unit’, we began to read Esperanza by Carol Gaab. With all of the supplemental materials that were included in the Teacher’s Guide, we worked on the novel from mid-September until mid-November. I have never had so much fun starting off the school year. My students were talking about relevant issues in Spanish - and who could have predicted how relevant these conversations would be during the contentious presidential election in 2016? The novel gave them the vocabulary to talk about immigration. They also began using structures like object pronouns without having been explicitly taught them. In my early days of teaching, I would dread the point in the curriculum that I would have to teach direct, indirect and double object pronouns. A colleague of mine who teaches the same level and, like me, started the year off with the novel, also had a few interesting comments from her students. One student asked her when they were going to start ‘learning Spanish’. What I found so wonderful about that comment was that the student didn't even realize she was acquiring Spanish, without worksheets & verb conjugations. In my class, we do projects which are often technology infused. Since our district is now 1:1 and I am a bit tech obsessed, if you walk into my room you will often see my students on their MacBooks. They could be using QuickTime Player to create screencasts, videos or audio recordings to re-tell part of a story. We do spontaneous recordings using QuickTime Player or Vocaroo, where I ask a question or two and they record their answers. Formative assessment can be a quick Google Form, which enables me to see where my students are instantly. These assessments feel integrated, because they aren’t rehearsed or things they could ‘study’ for. They write reactions to their reading or show they can interpret and understand what they were reading. Now, we are just finishing up reading our second novel, Felipe Alou: Desde los valles a las montañas. I was so happy to be discussing Felipe’s story during Black History Month. We were able to make connections to MLK, jr., Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. From reading the novel, they had the vocabulary to talk about these issues. We also watched the film Rumbo a las Grandes Ligas. Students in my class regularly respond to their reading with #BookSnaps (thank you Tara Martin) which are shared via Google Classroom. I create a blank Google Slides presentation and allow students to edit the presentation. They are free to creatively express their reactions to what they are reading, as they are reading. I describe them as the 21st century version of a post-it. These are so much fun for me as the teacher and for students. This school year, I heard about Breakout EDU. Then, Martina Bex shared her Breakout activity for the Spanish Christmas Lottery. With some help from Jen Fischer, I was able to create a digital version of the game, as I did not have a breakout kit available. We did this right before winter break and had a blast. As a culminating activity for Felipe Alou, I had my students come up with puzzles related to the novel for a Digital Breakout activity. My classes were engaged bell-to-bell. They were competitive, too, trying to outdo one another. The idea was to choose several of their puzzle ideas and create a digital Breakout game to use in class the next day. I ended up with three different digital breakout games to play. I plan to share more about the Breakout games in another post, so stay tuned! As my students got into groups to work on creating their puzzles, I overheard the comment about my class not being normal. I like to ‘keep ‘em on their toes’ and change things up. Next week, I am planning on several Movie Talks as we try to work on telling stories, which is a logical step after reading the novel in the past tense. I strive to continue not being ‘normal’. Share some of your ‘not normal’ activities in the comments! Time and not having enough of it is the problem of just about every teacher I know. We need more time in class to accomplish our goals. We wish we had more time outside of class to come up with creative lessons and ideas, to learn more, to attend more workshops and professional development opportunities, and of course, to keep up with grading responsibilities. Balancing professional goals and personal goals is tricky. To top things off, it is not an easy political climate to be a teacher. Just look at Twitter and see the posts of many public educators who are frustrated with current circumstances. That is actually one of the reasons I began blogging. And, it is one of the reasons I am trying to go out of my way to be creative and bring more joy into my teaching. This school year, I am having more fun than I have had in my first fifteen years of teaching - simply by not being afraid to try new ideas and ‘ditching my textbook’ (Thank you Matt Miller and Jennifer Fischer for leading me here). While not watching the Super Bowl, I was inspired to have my students create memes by Laura Sexton (aka Señora Spanglish). We did have a snow day which caused some changes in my original plans and I did not have time to try out the memes with my AP Spanish Language & Culture classes (the AP exam is less than 3 months away putting us under a bit of a time crunch). I think I found a way to get them in this week, so I'll share those later. My ninth graders have less time constraints to deal with, so we had a chance to make memes in those classes. We are working on the novel Felipe Alou: desde los valles a las montañas by Carol Gaab. We are up to chapter 7 and, in my opinion, it is very “meme-able” - the chapter is called ‘Mi primera hamburguesa’ - how could you go wrong with a chapter with that title? I didn’t want to limit the creativity of my students, so I told them they could choose anything from what we have already read in the book. I offered a screenshot of the template that Laura used with Seesaw as described in her blog post. But, not wanting to limit their creativity, I told them that they could also use their own ideas. These kids are clearly tech ‘natives’ and many have made memes before. Some meme making sites were blocked at school, but PixMeme worked. I also suggested using Google Slides or Google Draw. They were all able to find a way to express themselves that they were comfortable with using. The memes did not disappoint. Depending on their degree of ‘tech-savviness’, some of my students were fairly quick to create a meme related to Felipe Alou. So, I decided to add an optional second meme - they could create a meme about anything related to Spanish class. These were just awesome. The proficiency target level of this group is intermediate low, so I realize there are some grammar errors, but they are very comprehensible and appropriate for this level. They used Spanish. I got to laugh, which is much-needed nowadays. I also get to continue to enjoy doing my job.
The Super Bowl plays a fairly significant role in the culture of the United States. For many, it is a big deal, with watch parties, a lot of food and staying up or out late on a Sunday night (Sunday nights out are not particularly common during the school year for most of my teacher friends). In my house, the Super Bowl is not a big deal. My husband loves soccer and tennis. Today, my kids were excited to watch Egypt play in the African Cup of Nations final today (spoiler alert they lost). Super Bowl Sunday is otherwise just like any other Sunday here. Yesterday, we had a family movie night, watching a movie I had enjoyed as a kid, ‘Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’. Today, at around 6pm, around the time the Super Bowl started, my daughter decided we should watch the Tim Burton version, starring Johnny Depp - ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. So, that is what we did during the first half of the Super Bowl. By the time the movie was finished, it was halftime, so I got the kids to bed, watched Lady Gaga perform. Then, I needed something to do, so here I am.
First, I decided to re-read a blog I had read the other day from Laura Sexton, aka, Sra. Spanglish of PBL in the TL talking about ‘Taking a chill pill’. I thought maybe I would write my own thoughts on a similar subject. And, low and behold, she had a new blog post that grabbed my attention immediately. I have been posting about my fondness for #BookSnaps and Bitmojis (my students are obsessed). Laura happened to post about using Seesaw to have students create memes. Now, I am going to work on generating some memes this week. With my ninth graders, the memes will relate to chapter 6 of our class novel Felipe Alou: Desde los valles a las montañas. This chapter seems like it could lend itself to some memes, so I am excited to see what they come up with. I hope they have as much enthusiasm as they have had with the #BookSnaps so far. I’ll share some here in a few days. And, not to leave out my AP Spanish Language and Culture classes, we are beginning our unit on ‘La vida contemporánea’ and are going to be watching the film ‘Entre nos’ this week. I may have them create memes related to the movie. Or, I could save the memes for chapter 5 of our Book Club Friday selection, ‘La Ciudad de las Bestias’ by Isabel Allende. So, thank you, Laura, for inspiring me. The game is almost over, and being a teacher, it is getting to be very close to my Sunday night bedtime. Apparently, the game just got very interesting. Go Falcons! I recently posted about using #BookSnaps (thanks again, Tara Martin sharing your idea). I had been using these ‘snap’ reflections and reactions to reading with my AP classes as we are reading our Friday Book Club selection ‘Ciudad de las Bestias’ by Isabel Allende. To change things up a bit, I decided to give a different assignment - a brief paragraph as a reaction to what they read for this week’s chapter. There were so many disappointed faces and I was asked if they could include a #BookSnap along with their paragraph (of course I said yes). I have had fun using #BookSnaps, but I didn’t realize that my students would miss them if we skipped them. Allowing students to use Snapchat might seem unconventional. And, while Snapchat is very popular among teenagers, not all students use it, so I needed some alternatives. My AP students had been creating their #BookSnaps via Snapchat at home. This worked well for my AP Book Club Friday's. After seeing how engaged they were and how seriously my students took creating their #BookSnaps, I looked for a way to bring it into the class novel I am reading with my ninth graders (Felipe Alou: Desde los valles a las montañas by Carol Gaab, published by Fluency Matters). I wanted to find a way to use #BookSnaps created in class, without my students being tempted/distracted by their cell phone. I had some reservations about allowing phones in class to use Snapchat. My thinking was that it could lead to some inappropriate use that would be difficult to monitor. We are fortunate to be in a 1:1 school where everyone has a MacBook Air and the full features of the G Suite for Education. I decided to use a Google Slideshow shared on Google Classroom for collaboration. Alice Keeler has some great explanations for how to do this - Google Slides: Collaborate in 40 seconds and Google Classroom: Submitting Collaborative Google Slides. I assign each student a slide to create their own #BookSnap. My students are very familiar with emojis and were able to add them to their slide. Several also added the Bitmoji Chrome Extension, giving them access to a range of expressive cartoon avatars that they could personalize. (One caveat to the Bitmojis - a few are a bit "colorful", so I suggest reminding your students to only use things that would be appropriate in a school setting). Their slide also includes a quote or passage from the chapter of the book we are working on. They could type out the quote or use the camera on their MacBook to take a picture of a part that grabbed their attention or surprised them. It turns out that they are quite competitive about their #BookSnaps. I have three classes currently reading the novel, so I made one Slideshow, separated by a slide designating each period. The day after reading chapter four and creating our #BookSnaps, we viewed the Slideshow as a class. To vote for their favorite in each class, I created a simple Google Form that I shared via Google Classroom. This saved me a lot of time, since I didn’t have to tally votes - Google Forms did the work. The Form was quick to prepare - just be sure adjust the settings so students can only submit the the form once. Google has some info on how to set up and use the results of Google Forms. The overall ‘winner’ was this slide, which we have unofficially named ‘Hombre salado’ (salty man).All of this #BookSnapping (I think I just made up that word and hashtag) has inspired me to share and I have decided to take the plunge and offer a virtual book club for other teachers in my district. The book we will be reading is ‘Start. Right. Now.: Teach and Lead for Excellence’ by Todd Whitaker , Jeff Zoul and Jimmy Casas published by Dave Burgess Consulting. The plan is to conduct the book club through Google Classroom and instead of weekly posted questions and answers, I am going to use collaborative Google Slides and hoping to get some #BookSnaps into our virtual discussion. This way, not only will we be sharing insights from the book, but participants will have a new tool to use when reading with their own classes. Hopefully, people sign up for the book club! #BookSnaps can be used in a variety of subject areas, with just a little creativity.
Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments! Last year, I began to implement leveled readers and novels in some of my novice/intermediate low classes. I had always used stories in my classes, but I saved a lot of reading for upper level classes. One of my colleagues and I were able to get my supervisor to order some novels from Fluency Matters (which used to be called TPRStoryingtelling). We chose ‘Esperanza’ and 'Felipe Alou Desde las valles a las montañas’ by Carol Gaab and started out with a class set of books for each novel and shared them with each other (passing small plastic bins between classes). At that point we did not have the Teacher’s Resource Guide (which I highly recommend you buy before teaching one of these novels). We scoured the internet for some ideas. Some of our favorite blogs/sites for ideas are The Comprehensible Classroom, Mis Clases Locas and El mundo de Birch. Along with the ideas from those sites, we created some of our own resources, such as Kahoots, and really focused on getting the students to enjoy reading the novel. The fact that both of these novels tell the true stories of the struggles of different people who immigrated to the U.S. made them compelling reads. Since they were comprehensible, my students were able to get through the novels with relative ease. They were so proud to have read an ‘entire book’ in Spanish, something that they had never done before. I enjoyed having meaningful conversations with my students about topics that were relevant, including immigration and discrimination. I think they even surprised themselves with what they were able to talk about. The novel gave them the vocabulary to be able to talk about these issues. Because they were written with language acquisition in mind, they would see new vocabulary often enough to actually acquire it. The fact that they were able to use these words months after we finished reading proves that. Many times, long vocabulary lists are memorized for the 'quiz' and then quickly forgotten. We were so happy with using the novels, that we asked to buy more of them for the next school year. We chose novels for a variety of different courses that we offer and had our supervisor purchase the Teacher’s Guides. Upon some reflection, I think we went a bit too quickly finishing each novel in roughly two weeks the first time we taught them. This year, having the Teacher’s Guides (which are full of links to additional resources in addition to readings that are comprehensible for students), I am spending more time when reading a novel as a class. This year, rather than start the school year with a 'review' unit, my ninth graders began with 'Esperanza'. We worked with the novel (and it's resource rich Teacher's Guide) from mid-September through early November. My students are interested and more importantly, they are acquiring language without even realizing it. What is the most striking about this is that most students don’t even see it as ‘learning Spanish’. Yet, they are using structures and tenses that would not be used until much later in a traditional textbook curriculum. If they were used to just being taught about language, this is very different than what they were used to. But the gains, in terms of acquisition speak for themselves. I highly recommend trying these novels out. I feel like they have transformed my teaching. ***All images in this post used with permission from copyright holder, Fluency Matters.***
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AuthorHigh school Spanish teacher in NJ. Proficiency-oriented teacher. Always looking to try new things in my classes. Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey 2019 Teacher of the Year. Archives
December 2019
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