Minute by Minute Spanish

Spanish Lessons

Top 5 Engagement Strategies for Virtual Synchronous Spanish Class

By

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!

COVID Spanish Teaching: Replace White Boards, Partners, Moving around Class with Personalized Jamboard for Engaging Comprehensible Input

By

 

Jamboard for blog.mp4 from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

 

 

explantion 2 aug 27 from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

For more support, there are three available choices:

  1. Use bitmoji on the Jamboard as part of the Building Community lesson.

    2. Just use our 50 avatars for the Jamboard.

3. Combine the Building Community with our 50 avatars.

 

 

jboard exp from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

These Jamboard activities are part of our  Build community with our Day 3 lesson – students create a ‘get-acquainted slide’ using either our locker background or their own design and they make an avatar for:

  • our classroom platform

  • their ‘get-acquainted’ activity

  • most importantly to label with their name to become part of our daily comprehensible input activities using Jamboard, the free Chrome extension. 

Use the avatar to quickly respond to Comprehensible Reading, Writing and/or Speaking prompts.  Video of how to  make prompts included in lesson.

Platform Activity

Building Community Distance Learning

 

Get-Acquainted Activity

Questions? Contact me at ellen@minutebyminutespanish.

 

For more info on Plan A and Plan B lessons, read this blog.

For more info on  Building Community, read this blog.

and sign up below for 5 freebies for building community.

 

 

 

 

 

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

Spanish One Day 1 Lesson: Hybrid, Asynchronous, Synchronous, Streaming, In-Person – You Need Plan A and Plan B

By

If you are like me and unsure of the new school year, learn how to create a Plan A and Plan B to cover all of your bases.

If you want to download my Plan A, Plan B, and the Guía for Spanish One, Day One in Google Slides™, click the button below.

Hybrid, Asynchronous, Synchronous, Streaming, In Person Spanish 1 Day One Lesson from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 Click here to read  the next blog about building community.

Click here to read about personalizing Jamboard for interactive simultaneous participation.

     

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

Build Community in Distance Learning Spanish Class – The 5 Step Challenge

By

Building Community during Distance Learning

How can your students feel seen, heard, loved, and part of a community when they haven’t even met you in person?

 

Step 1:  Teach this lesson and Platform Activity

Teach Day One with free lesson  and assign “Get Acquainted Platform Activity” for homework or else make it the activities for Day Two. With over 10,000 downloads, my first day’s lesson is used around the world to successfully start first year students in the target language.

They learn “me llamo” “me gusta” and “no me gusta.”

You can download the free PowerPoint from TpT.

Build Community Distance Learning2

You can download the  updated virtual Google™ Slides by joining our newsletter’s Five Day  Challenge. Each day you will work on one step and receive a freebie to help you with that step.  After five days, you will receive a monthly newsletter with tips for distance learning, teaching with comprehensible input, and teaching  with 90% target language. The distance learning/virtual lesson for day 1 has over 50 slides that students can manipulate without teacher assistance.  It will give you many ideas for your future lessons, not just the first day.

At the end of this blog, there is an eight minute video of the lesson.

Traditionally, for homework, students share the name they want to be called and their likes and dislikes using either a tissue box or a 8½” x 11” sheet of paper.

build community in distance learning class #3

Updating it to accommodate distance learning, the students create a slide with the same three elements :

“Me gusta”

“No me gusta”

“Me llamo.”

No other words are included, just images.

The distance learning page includes one new element: Students create an image of themselves to go on the classroom bleachers in the virtual classroom. Assemble the slides into one Google™ Slide to share with the students.  I use a screen capturing software to make it a video for students to review and learn about their classmates.

You decide if the image should be actual pictures or emojis. (I chose emojis because seventh and eighth grade students can be thoughtless and use another’s vandalized image to boost their social media ratings.)

Also choose if you want their names on their emojis or if you want to place numbers on them with the name students use next to the number. This will require a bit of time, but will be worth it for building community. You are going to cut and paste each emoji to the bleacher and I suggest that you save it without the name for the next step.

 

Step 2: Personalization

Your goal is to build community with families., parents and students.  When I teach in person, parents send in a form about their child.  This year, they will submit a Google™ Form.  You can receive a copy of this as a springboard for creating your own when your join our e-mail newsletter above. With parents personalizing your knowledge of their children, let’s continue to build community with students.

First, now that you have your students on the bleachers, name your class.  I use the word “pandilla” in Spanish and add villa to my last name.  La pandilla de Shragervilla quickly gets shortened to Shragervilla and soon it become our identity.

“In Shragervilla we . . .”  “I really miss Shragervilla this year, Profe”  “Is Shragervilla going on another virtual field trip?”

So, first, create  your class name,

Building Community Distance Learning

Second, save this as a png o jpeg and insert it into your slide with directions, giving the vibe that these instructions are just for us, Shragervilla.

I just added to this discusion by creating a personalized Jamboard for interactive activities.  See my newest blog!

Third, if you are able to dedicate the time that first week, create a Quizlet or Quizizz game using the images and first names for students to learn one another’s names quickly.

Personalizing names

Fourth, when creating new worksheets, sprinkle your students’ names in them to keep them actively looking to see if they are included. Students feel seen when their names are mentioned and everyone knows their names.

 

Step 3: Transition Songs

Students feel loved when teachers use messages  that speak of love.  You can create your own images, songs, or memes and make them part of your daily routine.

In my class, we start every class with the song snip “¡Hola, M’ijos” and explain ‘m’ijos’ means my children as your students become dear children to you.  End each class with the song snip “Recuerdan que los quiero.”

Tell students every day that you love them all, and warm feelings will creep into your class.  Students will feel loved.

I use transition songs, performed by professional Venezuelan musicians, during my usual forty-five minutes classes because they keep students on task and in the target language. Since my distance lessons are considerably shorter, I use song snips.

BUENOS DIAS PROFESORAV from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

Each song snip is approximately 15 – 20 seconds. The two above are included in the first day’s lesson and “hasta luego” will be sent to our newsletter group.

build community in spanish class

 

Tell students every day that you love them all, and warm feelings will creep into your class.  Students will feel loved.

Spanish Routines for Distance Learning Hybrid Lessons from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

Starter kit with platform activity and four of the song snips available here.

        

Step 4: Daily Google Form for Feedback

The penultimate slide plays the snip song “Vamos a llenar formularios” with a link to a quick feedback form.  It usually contains a few questions from the day’s lesson and asks four important questions:

  1. How long did it take you to complete today’s lesson?
  2. What questions do you have or What do you think I should know about today’s lesson?
  3. Complete this sentence. “Today I still wonder about. ..”
  4. How did you experience today’s lesson?

End the Google form with a true false question “I need to return to the Google ™ Slides, answer the last question, and submit them.”  Link the Google™ Form back to the slides for the reflection song and the students sharing something specific they learned. A copy of my Google ™ Form will be sent to members of my newsletter group.

Start reviewing the Google™ Forms early in the day to fix any mistakes that the students tell you. I like to make a quick video of my reading the questions and giving the answers.  Students feel heard when their questions are answered by the end of the day.

 

Step 5: Shortcuts for speedily grading Google Slides with feedback.

How I wish back in March of 2020, in one of the umpteen zoom trainings about Google™ apps and extensions, someone had showed me how to quickly grade Google™ Slides with thorough feedback. We couldn’t assign daily deadlines, rather everything was due on Friday by 3:00 p.m. and it all had to be graded with feedback by Monday at 3:00 pm.  Tuesdays became our new Saturdays because we worked all weekend.  Accurate grading determined attendance yet many teachers gave up on grading the slides.

The key to speedy and accurate Google™ Slide grading is…drum roll, please…a scoring guide for that day’s slides.

Pick your 5 slides that you will grade and create accurate explanations and soon you will be clicking on the rectangles while the scores are automatically calculated. As I start my new lessons, each day there will be a scoring guide included for speedy feedback and grades. Members of the 5 Step challenge will receive what I use for the first day and keep it as a template for future lessons.

Fast Google Classroom Grading

fast speedy google grading from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

 

Want a preview of the first day’s lesson before you download it?

Building Community in Distance Learning Spanish Class from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

If you need a Plan A and a Plan B and a Guía for Students for Day 1, click here to read the next blog.

Other lessons from last spring – detailed videos of each day’s lesson.

 

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

Asynchronous Distance Learning Spanish 1 Lessons for Food Two Hours a Week.

By

___JPDYP Round4 bizxxx from ellen shrager on Vimeo.

_

&

 

 

 

;

 

Purchase lessons here.

If you are interested in learning more about these lessons, email me at minutebyminutespanish@gmail.com.

 

 

 

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