Minute by Minute Spanish

Spanish Lessons

Spanish Winter Songs – Ojála que Nieve y Súper Juego

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Spanish Class Snow Day!
Sing about the impending snow in Spanish!

 

As students return after Winter Break, help them to express their thoughts about the football playoffs and about potential snow school cancellations.

These catchy songs  will work their way into your students’ speech and will help build a sense of community about anticipating future events.

 

Nieve Folding Instagram5 from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

Update nieve! from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

 

Spanish Class Snow Day song.
Stay on task and in the target language as students discuss their hopes for a snow day!

Purchase here:

 

 

explanation súper juego 2020 from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

Purchase here.

All net proceeds help three Venezuelan families – meet them in this video as they open three boxes I sent to them.

 

 

If you want to read more about class structure and transition videos, read my blog here.

If your school won’t provide you with these tools, you may consider this:

 

 

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Dr. Martin Luther King Honored by Spanish-Speaking Countries – Spanish Class Lesson for Civil Rights Day – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

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It took ten hours of research to create a lesson that goes beyond the typical Spanish Class reading lesson of “I have a Dream” translation.

If you are like me, I teach in a community where Dr. King visited and preached.  One of our community members  was part of the bodyguard contingency when Dr. King visited the Philadelphia area and many others have links to him.  While I personally consider his “I have a Dream” speech to be in the top five best speeches in history, my junior high students have heard it every year.

Last year I shared a timeline with a few interesting facts written in Spanish prompting the discussion about how much Dr. King accomplished in such a short life span.  Students were surprised to learn that Dr. King had visited some Spanish-speaking countries and that they honored him in different ways.  We talked about what it would take for the United States to put a non-US citizen on its stamp.  We wondered about how much effort it would take to name a street or park after someone not born in our own country.  We watched the PowerPoint and then students wrote their own future legacy.

Many students thanked me for giving them a new twist to this beloved  holiday.  One very quiet student lingered behind to tell me that his church was very active in doing community service on Dr. King’s birthday.  We have had several discussions that his father is raising him to be a leader in his community.  He shared that he didn’t think I could teach him anything about Dr. King that he didn’t already know, but I did and he thanked me. I have to admit that I treasured that moment and that my ten hours of research and asking our Venezuelans to help me illustrate this made a difference.  This is why I love teaching and find it to be so rewarding.  I hope you do, too.

Click here for more about the PowerPoint version of this lesson.

Click here for more about the Google Slides version of this lesson.

All net proceeds help three Venezuelan families – meet them in this video as they open three boxes I sent to them.

 

 

If you want to read more about class structure and transition videos, read my blog here.

If your school won’t provide you with these tools, you may consider this:

 

 

 

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Spanish 1 Grade Recovery for Marking Period 1 – Giving Grace, Opportunities for Redemption, and Hope

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Grade Recovery Grace from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

Let’s give them grace.

How do you help students who flunked the first marking period to recover their grades when secured testing is elusive and there isn’t enough time to go through all of your full lessons?

I teach 160 minutes a week of virtual direct instruction and reduced my weekly lessons to one dense half-hour of essential information in an asynchronous lesson in Google Slides.

It helps them to do the lessons at their own pace without adult supervision.

When they finish they will know what most “D’ students know and be able to continue on to the next marking period, not dragging their flunking grade with them.

If our administrators give us the authority to change grades and offer redemption for genuine effort, we should embrace grace recovery during the Pandemic.

Click below for more information on the lessons.

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Top 5 Engagement Strategies for Virtual Synchronous Spanish Class

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As a “Baby Boomer GC Zoomer” Spanish One teacher, I keep my virtual students engaged for eighty-minute periods by adapting five of my tried-and-true comprehensible input activities to our online environment.

  1. Virtual Spanish Transition Videos

  2. Use pre-recorded audios and videos

  3. Use Zoom’s private chat to engage students

  4. Use warm-ups with engaging visuals

  5. Use Choice Boards and Mote for Asynchronous Wednesdays

1. VIRTUAL SPANISH TRANSITION VIDEOS

First, I am a big believer of staying in the target language by using musical transition videos.

Music seems to keep the endorphins flowing and to enter their subconscious.

They hear the first few notes and know what to do without using English, because the cartoon videos with students their age show them what to do.

Our Venezuelans made a dozen new videos to match my virtual transitions including:
Buenos días, m’ijos
Abran el chat Escriban en el chat
Reactivan la cámara
Entren en gupitos

Cump_91 from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

2. USE PRERECORDED AUDIOS

Second, as a comprehensible input teacher, I want to drench my students with reading and listening activities.  In the past I created many 30 second audios for students in order to preserve my voice.  Now these 30 second breaks from my speaking enable me to build community and create bonds with my students.  I carry on many personal conversations with students in the private Zoom chat.  They tell me all kinds of things from their internet being laggy to it being their birthday this weekend.  Students struggling or with questions ask in the chat and I can answer without disrupting learning. Who knew that back in the 70’s when my super strict teacher insisted we learn to type without looking at the keyboard that one day I would be staring into a computer camera and typing words of encouragement to students I can’t even see!

3. USE ZOOM’S PRIVATE CHAT TO ENGAGE STUDENTS

Third, I use the chat to engage students. I replaced asking the class questions and their responding in unison or on a white board with their answering in the Zoom private chat.  Every day I ask them ¿Cómo están ustedes? I read some of the answers as they fly in with a commentary.  “Cansado, bien, regular, cansada, lo mismo de siempre, cansado cansada cansada, wow es lunes. ¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?” and I comment on the number writing it in numerals correctly.

In the chat I ask them to predict how many of the listening sentences they will get right and then have them report back to me their actual score. I ask them many of the storytelling yes or no questions or ask them about their preference and they answer the chat in a flurry. I respond to their answers.  I always save the chat and am amazed by the high number of responses from my 30 students.

How to Engage Students in Distance Learning Escriban en el chat
How to Engage Students in Distance Learning Lo Veo Lo pienso ¿Me pregunto?

4. USE WARM-UPS WITH ENGAGING VISUALS WHILE CHECKING IN STUDENTS

Fourth, it takes me at least five minutes to check in each student individually, to keep us safe from Zoom bombers.   During daily warm-ups, students look at an intriguing image and write what they see, what they think and what they wonder.  We always go over the answers the next class period and they enjoy exploring images of money, landscapes, and other cultural items that pique their curiosity and keep them engaged. I ask them in the chat if they would want to visit this place when it is safe to do so, offering them hope and a vision of better times.

How to Engage Students in Distance Learning Choice Board

5. USE ASYNCHRONOUS TIME FOR CULTURAL CHOICE BOARDS

On Wednesdays, the students work asynchronously for forty minutes.  In class, they are drenched in comprehensible input.  I debated using this time for them to practice on Quizizz or some other input program. I decided that when they aren’t with me, they have the chance to pursue their interests and fall in love with the culture, increasing their engagement.  Families report it has been a great decision.

Each week we highlight a different country in our choice board that lays out everything they need.  They choose one activity:

  1. Review the artist’s work and recreate American Gothic in the artist’s style – submit the picture.
  2. Read about a sports figure and answer questions.
  3. Make one of the recipes and submit a picture.
  4. Try a dance and answer the questions.
  5. Create a craft and submit a picture.
  6. Record saying the tongue twister.
  7. Listen to the song and answer the questions.
  8. Complete a sudoku with this week’s vocabulary.

Choiceboard _1 from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

Many parents have told me how they all review the choice board when it drops into their Google Classroom and decide together – building engagement with the families and Shragervilla, as I call my community.

USE MOTE TO RESPOND

When I review and grade their choice boards, I use MOTE to respond.  It is a chrome extension that allows me to answer using my voice in the private messages so that students feel like we are talking. I comment on what they made or with whom they practiced the dance.

“You danced with your new puppy? What’s his name? What kind of a dog?  I want a picture of this!”
“Wow that tres leches cake makes me hungry – how long did it take to make and who helped you?”

The unintended consequence is that I easily have 50 emails a day from students and families, but it is a small price to pay for the level of engagement they represent.

This is the hardest teaching I have done since I started over thirty years ago.  Many students do not turn on their cameras and we don’t use the audio because I average 30 students per class.  I miss our little interactions that I never appreciated before.  But, by using these five steps to engagement, we are building a sense of community. It keeps students engaged even when their cameras and microphones are off, they are texting me in the chat with their answers, observations, and feedback to the different activities I create.

It is one of my core values that no education is ever wasted.

While virtual teaching is far from ideal, our students need us now more than ever to validate the importance of their learning by investing our time in engaging them.

All net proceeds help three Venezuelan families – meet them in this video as they open three boxes I sent to them.

 

 

If you want to read more about class structure and transition videos, read my blog here.

Virtual Transition Videos from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!

Virtual Spanish Class Online Review of Numbers, Days and Dates.

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At some point, Gimkit, Quizizz, Quizlet and other online games become mundane to my virtual learners. That’s when it’s time to have them rapidly provide answers that create pieces of the flag puzzle.

Spanish Online Review Numbers Days and Dates from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

If they put in the wrong answer, it doesn’t turn color so they can instantly try another answer. 
For example on telling time Son las siete y cuarto finally sunk in as typing 7:04 just didn’t work!!!! 

These are created by my Venezuelan friends, who provide food for their families by selling them in our TpT shop – my charity work as all net proceeds go to them.  See video of them below.

Click on images for more information.

 

For more ways to engage your online and hybrid students, read my blog here.

All net proceeds help three Venezuelan families – meet them in this video as they open three boxes I sent to them.

 

 

If you want to read more about class structure and transition videos, read my blog here.

Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!
Thanks for Visiting For the Minute by Minute Spanish!