Rubik’s, Fidget, and Slime – Oh, My!
Class Closure? Yes! Thanking Students for Learning? No!
A teacher shared his class closure of thanking students for learning and their responding with thanking him for teaching them. Many of my Junior High students also say ‘gracias’ at the end of the class as they file past me as I stand outside my door and in the hall.
I hadn’t analyzed it before so this blog started me thinking as to why we are thanking one another. I believed they are thanking me for the extra effort I put into making our time together meaningful and interesting.
I am thanking them for their wise choices during class, for their effort, and for making me a better teacher with their questions and observations.
I hesitate to thank them for learning as I don’t want learning to be something they do for adults, rather a gift they give themselves.
Most of us veteran teachers recognize that the “Millennials” were given awards for showing up and it really didn’t help them to build resilience and genuine self-confidence. Many are depressed because they aren’t constantly being praised for every little effort in their jobs.
We are doing a better job with the “Linksters” or post 2000 generation we call “Gen Z.” Let’s keep it up by helping them to be reflective about their learning each and every day!
To this end, I play the song below and then ask in the target language what they specifically learned today. They use the vocabulary from the song and add to it what they learned, making it their own. Yes, it is level one and we don’t officially teach the past tense, but all of my students can use it in this context and yours can also!
For a better closure to Spanish class, we sing along with the closure video, “Hoy Aprendí”
Hoy, hoy aprendí
Una palabra nueva
La cultura de otra tierra
Hoy, hoy aprendí
De una música que me llena
Y las noticias de Venezuela
Hoy yo aprendí
A hablar español
For a better closure to French class, we sing along with the closure video, “Objectif De La Journée”
Aujourd’hui, Aujourd’hui, j’ai appris
Un nouveau mot, une nouvelle phrase
La culture d’un autre pays
Aujourd’hui, Aujourd’hui, j’ai appris
Peut-être une nouvelle chanson
Et les nouvelles de la France
Aujourd’hui, j’ai appris à parler français
For a better closure to German class, we sing along with the closure video, “Das Ziel der Lektion”
Das Objekt der Lektion
Nun, Schüler
Was habt ihr heute gelernt?
Heute, heute habe ich
ein neues Wort, einen neuen Satz und
etwas über die Kultur eines anderen Landes gelernt.
Heute, heute habe ich
ein neues Lied gelernt, das mich erfüllt.
Die Nachrichten aus Berlin
Heute habe ich Deutsch zu sprechen gelernt
For a better closure to English class, we sing along with the closure video, “Today I Learned.”
Today, Today I learned
A new word, a new phrase
About the culture of another country
Today, today I learned
A new song that fills me
The news from the USA
Today I learned to speak English!
For a better closure to Mandarin Chinese class, we sing along with the closure video,
jīn tiān xué dào le shen me ？
上课了
同学们 今天学到了什么？ 新词，新短语 其它国家的文化 一首新歌 中国的新闻 今天我学会了说普通话
shàng kè le
tóng xué men
jīn tiān xué dào le shen me ？
xīn cí ，xīn duǎn yǔ
qí tā guó jiā de wén huà
yī shǒu xīn gē
zhōng guó de xīn wén
jīn tiān wǒ xué huì le shuō pǔ tōng huà
For a better closure to Italian class, we sing along with the closure video, “Oggi Ho Imparato.”
Oggi ho, imparato
una nuova parola, una nuova espressione
la cultura di un altro Paese
Oggi ho imparato
una nuova canzone che mi riempie
delle notizie da Roma
Oggi ho imparato a parlare l’italiano.
©Ellen Shrager 2017
Best Paid Supplementary Materials for Realidades Year 1 users
Lily Dee asked, “Realidades Yr 1 users, what kinds of PAID supplementary materials or subscriptions do you purchase to enhance what you are doing in the first 6 chapters? Looking for engaging materials for my middle schoolers (grades 6-8.) 
I teach seventh, eighth and ninth grade Spanish 1 in a district that also uses Realidades 1 and I have created three categories of supplemental materials based on students needing minute-by-minute visual and audio support to stay on task and in the target language. As I describe in my book you need to make a few slides for each lesson. They can be in PPT, ActivInspire, SmartNotebook, which ever you use to project onto the screen in your room. Make a slide for each activity in the lesson.
First category, insert transition videos in-between your activities.
You can:
Here is the list of the 50 videos now available in Spanish.
Second category, use one of my daily tech guides – meaning a PPT of 50 – 150 slides for each day so that there is visual support for the complete 50 minute lesson.
They are sold individually or in bundles.
After I teach a lesson, it takes a couple of hours for me to put them into PPT as I use Activ Inspire and to document it so that it can be sold individually. It takes another 10 hours of work to bundle them. Some months I am able to do this, other months there are too many family and work obligations that I can’t keep up. My goal is to complete them next year as I teach the unit. If you haven’t seen a daily tech guide, you can down load for free the first day to get a feel for one. For more info, go to this previous blog.
Third category, direct instruction of survival vocabulary, including student – to – student interactions.
From what other teachers have told me, these three categories of activities complement all level one texts.
Have a good think about what you want to accomplish in level one and let me know how I can help you.
Welcome FLENJ Conference Attendees!
Today we are at FLENJ and here are the links to the different languages!
On your cell phone click on the three white bars in the black rectangle above to open the menu and find your language link!
On your computer, click on your language in the black box above.
Spanish Class Hack – 180 Seconds A Day to Dominate Abstract Spanish Question Words
A Spanish teacher asked how to help students with those pesky abstract question words. A few floating teachers were wondering how to hang up question words in multiple rooms. My answer is the question song.
I use a remote presentation device so I can click through my daily guide for each class. Every day we devote three minutes to asking and answering questions with fabricated stories and it pays off – my students come back years later and can still sing the question song and easily answer questions. I’ve had 30 year olds sing the song to me in the grocery store upon a chance encounter! The ninth grade Spanish teacher tells me he can always identify my former 7th grade students because they can answer questions easily.
I know there is a Jingle Bells version but for me it interfered with students learning because, well, to them, it is the Jingle Bells song. It is also too long over 3 minutes and I wanted something under a minute, catchy, and with a Latin beat.
I play it every day .
Sales support the fairly desperate Venezuelans who created the video. Learn more about them here. Purchase Video Here.
Next I flip through the slides and the students ask their partners the following questions and they make up answers.
Sometimes I show a picture, sometimes I show a video clip. They make up all of the answers and it is a fun oral activity
I play my ‘noticias’ video and then show my Spanish 1 students the headlines from a BBC Mundo article – we read the headlines and the caption to the visual. Next we sing this song and then I ask questions about what we have just read and they answer in Spanish.
Students can stand or move around the room a bit for this. By the end of the year they are experts at spinning stories in Spanish.
Last year I started sending work to some desperate Venezuelans, and now the song is a musical video that my students just loved this past year.
Click here to purchase the song.
Click here to learn more about our Venezuelan singer.
Invest three minutes a day in this review of questions and vocabulary and you and your students will be glad you did!
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