One way I practice the future tense is with the game MASH. It is a game I have fond memories playing growing up and many of my students are familiar with. By the end my students are always laughing about the futures that have been created for them while using the targeted future tense. I set aside about 45 minutes to complete this entire activity because I don’t want to rush the steps or run out of time for the interpersonal portion. The first step is having students write in 4 options for each of the categories. Since the letters of MASH don’t translate well into Spanish, I really just…
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Guided Grammar Notes
While I don’t often give verb conjugation assessments or assessments where students have to choose the correct verb tense, I want them to know how to form verbs in each tense and when to use each one. So many students benefit from having that information and want to have a place to keep track of their thoughts on a verb tense. In recent years, I’ve been using guided notes sheets for my students. We don’t have a textbook at my school so these packets of notes become their text book and provide us with a common reference point. I create skeleton notes for students and then a matching Google presentation…
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Online Student Support Documents
I never thought I would teach fully online Spanish classes, but then a friend connected me with an online education company and my school district needed online teachers. Both programs come with pre-made curriculums, so my role is to grade and provide feedback and support. The self-paced independence that comes with fully online learning is so great for certain students, but it can be hard to get them to actually engage with the language and culture. So I’ve considered it my goal to get them using the language as much as I can. This has meant that I’ve made adjustments to the programs I use, I rearranged materials so I…
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Beginning of Year Spanish Grammar Review
After the ups and downs of the last year and half, I wanted to provide my students with some resources they can use to review verb conjugations and tenses from last year. While we still introduced a lot of the normal course themes, they just didn’t get the same in class practice with the tenses so they need some additional support. The first site I’ve been recommending to them is conjuguemos. My department actually paid for the upgraded version of the site last year, so my students are familiar with the format and this year they have added even more games! There are grammar, vocabulary and listening activities all housed…
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Jamboard and the Present Progressive
I’ve always enjoyed teaching the present progressive to my students because it comes as a breath of fresh air after focusing on the preterite and imperfect. I never spend a lot of time on it because it is more rarely used, but the unit is always a nice break from the complications of other verb tenses. During in-person instruction, I love to practice the tense by using fun, crazy pictures. Students get super creative when building their sentences and it is a great way to review verbs. My students always enjoy searching out the strangest things happening in the pictures and feel accomplished after describing them. This year though, I…
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Bell Ringer Activities
When I began my first teaching job, my colleagues would often reference openers during our PLCs. It took me a while to figure out that they were talking about what I had always heard of as bell ringers, a short activity done at the beginning of class to practice specific grammar or vocabulary. While I had some experience with these types of activities, I was still a bit unsure of how to use or create them for my classes. Now 8 years later, I use openers almost daily in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes. Most days we practice the grammar or vocabulary of our current theme, but occasionally I use…