Trying to be in the target language 90% of the time is big challenge for me for a variety of reasons. However, it is a goal that national standards want me to push towards so I keep trying.
I have realized that one way I can stay more in the language is if I have presentations (powerpoint, Prezi, notebook for the SmartBoard) already designed ahead of time. It takes more prep work but then there are more visuals to help get my point across and avoid slipping into English to make it easier on the students. Plus, it helps me keep focused on what I want to say. If I write up my points the day before, I can also look up any words that I might need in the target language.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Para vs Por
In Spanish there are several times where we come across a word in English that can be translated two different ways into Spanish but those two ways are each used for distinct reasons. Students usually struggle with keeping these reasons straight.
"Para" and "por" both basically mean "for" in English but can carry significantly different meanings. "Las flores son para mi novia" means that you are giving flowers to your girlfriend while "las flores son por mi novia" could indicate that you are trading a floral arrangement to receive your significant other.
In previous years I have taught a list of reasons for when to use para and then a list of reasons for when to use por. We practiced those reasons in English and Spanish for multiple days but my kids were still nervous and tested poorly on the concept. I always ended up taking a day to reteach by showing how the reasons contrasted (use para if you are giving something to someone vs por if you are exchanging something).
This year I went straight to the comparison method. There are four para reasons that line up with por reasons. We looked at how the different choice of "para" vs "por" affected the sentence and went from there.
My students were still nervous approaching the quiz but as a group they did better than previous years. I think the uncertainty factor could have been knocked down a little if I had given the students a list of the para reasons and the por reasons right after we finished learning all the reasons. Having three sets of notes (since I was still rewriting them from last year and was only staying one day ahead of where we were in class) made it a little tricky to find information. However, I am excited about how this concept went this year and look forward to finding sneaky ways of introducing some of these reasons in the lower levels in the future :)
"Para" and "por" both basically mean "for" in English but can carry significantly different meanings. "Las flores son para mi novia" means that you are giving flowers to your girlfriend while "las flores son por mi novia" could indicate that you are trading a floral arrangement to receive your significant other.
In previous years I have taught a list of reasons for when to use para and then a list of reasons for when to use por. We practiced those reasons in English and Spanish for multiple days but my kids were still nervous and tested poorly on the concept. I always ended up taking a day to reteach by showing how the reasons contrasted (use para if you are giving something to someone vs por if you are exchanging something).
This year I went straight to the comparison method. There are four para reasons that line up with por reasons. We looked at how the different choice of "para" vs "por" affected the sentence and went from there.
My students were still nervous approaching the quiz but as a group they did better than previous years. I think the uncertainty factor could have been knocked down a little if I had given the students a list of the para reasons and the por reasons right after we finished learning all the reasons. Having three sets of notes (since I was still rewriting them from last year and was only staying one day ahead of where we were in class) made it a little tricky to find information. However, I am excited about how this concept went this year and look forward to finding sneaky ways of introducing some of these reasons in the lower levels in the future :)
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
A Little Bit of March Madness to Practice Some Sports
I am not a huge basketball fan. I have filled out a bracket for March Madness less than a half dozen times in my life. However, this is an event that connects to my students so this week I brought a tiny bit of the "locura" into my room.
Many names of sports are pretty decent cognates so to save a little time and get us into using the words quickly, I passed out notes with the English already written, not something I usually like to do but figured since so many words were similar to start with, it would be ok.
I put a bracket (made in powerpoint when I discovered my online bracket had been blocked by the school's firewall, sigh) up on the Smartboard and using phrases such as "¿Cuál deporte es mejor? ¿número uno? ¿el favorito?" I had the students vote on pairs and determined a winner for each pairing.
For the first round, the students repeated the sports several times after me before raising their hands to vote. For the following rounds we only said the words once or twice per round. Fútbol americano proved to be the favorite in each class.
I loved that this activity had the students engaged in their opinions right away! And while not everyone voted, they at least all had a chance. Plus it was an easy way to practice pronunciation that was not the traditional "repeat after me with flashcards."
Many names of sports are pretty decent cognates so to save a little time and get us into using the words quickly, I passed out notes with the English already written, not something I usually like to do but figured since so many words were similar to start with, it would be ok.
(I finally figured out how to add one of these graphic organizers and successfully add items to it!)
I put a bracket (made in powerpoint when I discovered my online bracket had been blocked by the school's firewall, sigh) up on the Smartboard and using phrases such as "¿Cuál deporte es mejor? ¿número uno? ¿el favorito?" I had the students vote on pairs and determined a winner for each pairing.
For the first round, the students repeated the sports several times after me before raising their hands to vote. For the following rounds we only said the words once or twice per round. Fútbol americano proved to be the favorite in each class.
Completed bracket up close
I loved that this activity had the students engaged in their opinions right away! And while not everyone voted, they at least all had a chance. Plus it was an easy way to practice pronunciation that was not the traditional "repeat after me with flashcards."
Saturday, April 4, 2015
The Struggles of Object Pronouns
Object pronouns--direct and indirect--have been a sore spot for my Spanish students ever since I first started teaching them a decade ago. I think part of the problem is that they just don't get what they are in English. I originally approached this grammar issue by trying to teach my students what object pronouns were in English. We would spend a whole day on practicing the concept entirely in English, not even considering the Spanish. Still didn't help. I came up with a checklist of questions to ask (what is the verb, who is doing the action, what is being given/mailed/seen/whatever the verb is, etc). Didn't work.
This year I tried flipping the order that we approach the pronouns when we reviewed in Spanish III. I still wasn't sure if focusing on indirect object pronouns first was best but without having to worry about masculine vs feminine, I decided to stay with that approach when the time came to use this concept in Spanish II for the first time.
We spent basically a week with each idea (other vocabulary and culture in there too so not five full days for the concept).
Overall when the two concepts--indirect and direct--were kept completely separate, the students got the idea. Unfortunately when we combined them (just using one or the other in a sentence not both in the same sentence--that is coming this week), things got hairy. A lot of kids just didn't know which pronoun to use (and some even forgot to get rid of the word the pronoun was replacing).
I then spent the beginning of a class teaching the students how to diagram sentences. I know that is very grammatical and not how we think about language when we are forming sentences but it gave them a visual way of approaching sentences. I haven't tested them since but I did have several students tell me that the diagramming helped. One kid even said he wished we had done this earlier.
I am still frustrated with object pronouns. I think I need to start sneaking them into sentences students will see earlier in the year so maybe there will be a tiny bit of subconsciousness understanding before we focus on the concept.
This year I tried flipping the order that we approach the pronouns when we reviewed in Spanish III. I still wasn't sure if focusing on indirect object pronouns first was best but without having to worry about masculine vs feminine, I decided to stay with that approach when the time came to use this concept in Spanish II for the first time.
We spent basically a week with each idea (other vocabulary and culture in there too so not five full days for the concept).
Overall when the two concepts--indirect and direct--were kept completely separate, the students got the idea. Unfortunately when we combined them (just using one or the other in a sentence not both in the same sentence--that is coming this week), things got hairy. A lot of kids just didn't know which pronoun to use (and some even forgot to get rid of the word the pronoun was replacing).
I then spent the beginning of a class teaching the students how to diagram sentences. I know that is very grammatical and not how we think about language when we are forming sentences but it gave them a visual way of approaching sentences. I haven't tested them since but I did have several students tell me that the diagramming helped. One kid even said he wished we had done this earlier.
I am still frustrated with object pronouns. I think I need to start sneaking them into sentences students will see earlier in the year so maybe there will be a tiny bit of subconsciousness understanding before we focus on the concept.
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