Announcing My Online, On-Demand Spanish 1 Course!

Click ↑ to go to my new YouTube Channel!

It's here! I'm teaching my "Jalen Waltman" standards-based high school Spanish 1 curriculum on YouTube and have published a Spanish 1 workbook to go with the videos!

Meet Your Instructor

I'm a certified K-12 Spanish teacher currently holding professional teaching licenses in both Colorado and Oklahoma. I was Nationally Board Certified in World Languages Other than English in 2003, and I have a Master's degree in Teaching from Colorado College. I've taught every level of Spanish from Spanish 1 through AP Spanish Language and Culture. I've been writing and selling Spanish lesson plan curriculum for all of those levels since 2005 all over the U.S. and Canada, on Amazon as well as on Teachers Pay Teachers.

It's Spanish 1, Online and On-Demand!

Students can access my YouTube videos from any device, anywhere. They can pause my instruction, re-watch segments of it, come back to where they left off later, and they will grade everything themselves in their own workbook by following along with me in the videos.

There is also no need for schools or students to buy software, pay a subscription fee to a program, create an account, log in, or participate in video calls with a Spanish teacher. All of my instruction is free on YouTube. The only cost is the 281-page, $35 student workbook. The student workbook contains my syllabus and ALL the work for the course - there is no need to copy anything else to hand out to students or supplement the workbook with any additional assignments. 

Paperback only - now Available on Amazon

How to Use my Spanish 1 Online Course

Schools or families can use my online Spanish course with students in a classroom setting (with or without a "highly qualified" Spanish teacher) or as an at-home, individual online learning foreign language course.

My workbook covers all the vocab and grammar taught in a mainstream Spanish 1 textbook and is aligned with novice-level ACTFL standards. I teach and lead students through exercises in all 4 skill areas of Spanish: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.

The scope and sequence is exactly what I taught at the high school level in my own classes since 2009. The only difference is that on YouTube I was able to cover ALL of it more thoroughly and reach the end of my first semester lessons since I wasn't being interrupted by assemblies, special testing days, school events, snow days, delayed starts, going over the student handbook, giving absent students their makeup work, etc.

Students taking my YouTube Spanish course can go at their own pace, pausing the videos as needed, re-watch any segments that they didn't quite understand, and review any material they so choose.

Students will work in their own workbook as they watch my video instruction, pausing the video and writing in their own handwriting as I direct them on the videos, to prove that they did the work themselves. They will also evaluate and grade all their own practices and formative assessments throughout the workbook, with me, on the videos.

(Note: my Spanish 1A workbook is copyrighted and not for copying and distribution as handouts or online. If you want or need copies of my curriculum for a Spanish teacher to use for handouts in class or post in his or her Google classroom, that would be my Spanish 1A Supporting Docs bundle on TPT.)

Pacing

There are 32 videos in my Spanish 1A course, averaging 60 minutes start-to-finish. They should be watched at the rate of about two per week. Since students must pause at various intervals in each video in order to complete an assignment in the workbook before going over it with me, the total instruction time would be more or less equivalent to four to five 45-minute classes per week or 1.5 to two 90-minute blocks per week.

Grading

I would give a completion grade for completing all activities and quizzes in each of the 4 major sections of the workbook:

• First Day - Lesson 8/Essay Uno
• Lesson 9 - Lesson 17/Essay Dos
• Lesson 18 - Lesson 24/Essay Tres
• Lesson 25 - Lesson 30/Final Reading and Essay

There is a writing pre-assessment at the beginning of the workbook, a 10-minute essay prompt at the end of each of the first three sections, and a final 20-minute essay prompt at the end of the fourth section. The essays could also be graded separately if desired and assigned letter grades. (Student progress in 10-minute total word count can also be charted from the pre-assessment to the final essay if desired. I usually have students keep a chart of their word count progress in my in-person classes.)

For a final grade in the class, a student must have completed all activities in the entire workbook in their own handwriting as well as pass a final exam, placement, or proficiency test with a 65% or better. You can assign letter grades according to how they score on the exam combined with effort and completion of the workbook. (More on testing below.)

For students scoring below 65%: I personally allow re-takes of tests if students wish to study the videos again and try to take the test again for a passing grade, but that provision is up to the school or institution granting credit.

Testing

Since the course is being taught online by a certified, highly qualified Spanish teacher with 19 years of experience, it can be used for foreign language or world language credit.

After completion of my Spanish 1A video course and workbook, there three options for schools or institutions in certifying credit for one semester of Spanish 1:

1. There is a proficiency-based summative assessment at the end of the workbook, which I direct and explain in the Lesson 30/Final Lesson video on YouTube. The two skills assessed at the end of the workbook are Reading and Writing proficiency.

2. Institutions can give their own first-semester final exam, proficiency test, or placement test to verify that students have acquired the skill level to progress on to Spanish 1B, the second semester of Spanish 1.

3. I can send school administrators a new multiple-choice test (that's not in the workbook) with study guide and answer key upon request. (You will receive a mailing with details about that.)

Timeline for Spanish 1B

I intend to have my Spanish 1B workbook ready to ship by November 1, 2020, and videos will be coming out weekly during Spring semester 2021.

Click here to order!

Spanish 1 Complete Lesson Plans on SALE this week!

SPOOKY OCTOBER 20% OFF SALE on the updated 2017 Spanish 1A bundles in my TPT store!

The first (bigger) half is regularly $75 ($60 sale price,) and the second half is regularly $50 ($40 sale price.) NOTE: this 20% off sale is only good from Oct 1 - Oct 4!

Link to the first bundle: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jalen-Waltmans-Spanish-1A-2017-First-Day-Lesson-17-Bundle-4832865

Link to the second bundle: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jalen-Waltmans-Spanish-1A-2017-Lesson-18-Lesson-30-Bundle-4835756

You guys, these lesson plans use the same crazy skits as my 2009 version, and are chock full of printables for handouts or screen display in your class. They have speaking prompts for easy level 1 conversation practice, improved quizzes and tests with keys, translation activities to go with every lesson that you can use as homework, to quiet down a rowdy class, or even as sub plans, writing prompts, and graphic organizers.

I spent an entire school year updating my 2009 stuff, so an unbelievable amount of evening/weekend work went into creating these plans. They are a STEAL for $75/$50, but with the 20% this week, you or a first-year Spanish teacher you know would get all of my latest and greatest level 1 first semester, complete lessons for $100 total ($60/$40.) So please share with anyone you know who might be in search of something that makes life easier. 

STOP LESSON PLANNING NOW - I DID IT ALL FOR YOU!!!

Just take the weekend off for once! ;-)

Spanish 1A (Expanded and Updated) 2017 BUNDLE on TPT!

Hi everyone! Well, after getting really bogged down trying to create an ebook (and a print book) with the umpteen jillion individual documents that are in my updated Spanish 1A 2017 files, I changed my mind (again) and decided to just go ahead and offer the lessons as a bundle instead. It's August and I'm just too busy to make ebooks and paperbacks right now (I'm sure you can relate...)

I was concerned about the stealing and plagiarism I have read about on TPT but after spending all my free time for two weeks struggling to combine and format these 400 or so documents into a single manuscript (it's VERY complicated in Word when you have columns, headers, footers, etc. for each individual document,) I realized, it's Labor Day weekend, I need a break, and honestly it's going to take me all weekend to finish this beast...IF I work on it several hours a day...and even then, it might not be done by bedtime Monday.

And then I just rebelled.

And then I said to myself, if somebody wants to steal all my stuff and spend all their free time for two or three weeks making an ebook out of it, MORE POWER TO THEM, because it's so much work that I just can't face it right now.

Okay, end of whining session. The Spanish 1A bundle (First Day - Lesson 30, all lessons including final exam, containing around 500 documents) should go live sometime tonight or Saturday. If you buy this bundle, you do not need to buy my 1A 2009 ebook or print book on Amazon; the bundle has everything you need.

Whew! TGIF! Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Back To School Coupon Code on TPT!

August 6th and 7th are Teachers Pay Teachers' Back To School Days. Use the coupon code BTS19 sitewide to get up to 25% off...I think my store is that percentage off, anyway...and buy, buy, buy while the prices are hot!

Update on a Spanish 1A 2017 "bundle:" I have decided not to bundle all my 1A lessons on TPT into one huge bundle. I've researched the issue of copyright violation (people stealing and re-publishing your stuff) on TPT and I feel the best way for me to protect my income is to publish Spanish 1A 2017 as an ebook and print book on Amazon. That is planned for this month, hopefully by August 25th. In the meantime, if you are looking for killer Spanish 1 first semester lesson plans with individual Word docs you can download to your computer, that would be the lessons for sale in my TPT store right now. I think my new assistant and I only have 2 or 3 more lessons to upload to have all 30 of them available there. :)

Basic Signs for Spanish 1 Classroom Walls

Cheap, colorful, and useful. What more could I ask?

Hi everyone! I just uploaded a file containing all my basic Spanish 1+ printable signs for walls or bulletin boards to my TPT store. If you're new/just starting out and have nothing to decorate your room with, here's an inexpensive way to get some color on the walls as well as have useful vocab and phrases all around the room that pertain to Spanish 1 (and beyond.)

I'm offering the download for $1, so please let any financially challenged first-year Spanish teachers you know to run and get 'em. :)

These are my simple text-only Spanish signs that you can print on colored paper, tape together if desired (see the examples in the photo above where I taped together the months of the year as well as the Telling Time signs,) and then laminate to hang on your walls or bulletin boards.

I use and refer to these basic signs in all levels, and they are a must-have in my classroom.

List of signs included

(all are in Spanish, and all can be modified to suit your needs):

1. Days of the Week
2. Months of the Year
3. What time is it? + the possible answers
4. What time is...? + the possible answers
5. Subject Pronouns
6. Question Words
7. Signs With Teacher's Name and Subject (you can modify these if your last name isn't Waltman :-))
8. A "Costa Rica" sign and an "España" sign - these are the "countries" groups in my class, but modify to suit your needs
9. "Objectives" signs for Spanish 1 and 2, to post on your whiteboard above your list of objectives for the day

I realize this is something for the BEGINNING of the year, not the end, but hey...just trying to get you guys ready for Fall...really, really early. :)

And don't forget to follow me on TPT to get notified when I upload new goodies. :-)

Updated and Expanded Spanish 1A 2017 Lessons Now Available for $5 each on TPT!

I should have named these "2018" updates because it took me well into 2018 to actually finish level 1.

Hi everyone! Well, I've been busy at work on my Teachers Pay Teachers store uploading my new, updated, expanded 2017 Spanish 1A lesson plans. I mean, it's only 2 years later, right?!? I wanted to publish these last year but I was (and still am) in the process of transitioning all my lesson plan books to Amazon rather than getting them printed myself, selling and shipping them out of my house, and that has been a huge project. I'm still not completely done with the transition. :(

Also, life just got a little CRAZY last year, but we won't get into that. I'm glad it's 2019.

What's New in the 2017/2018 Version?

The skits are still the same ones, but I modified/updated/standardized all the quizzes and tests to be more like the format I do in level 3. You know, after I learned so much about what I REALLY wanted a lesson to look like. The quizzes now follow exactly the same vocab as the vocab list from the lesson before, and include the grammar from that lesson as well. The tests are in exactly the same format and take all the same info from the quizzes, so you are literally reviewing for the test every single day.

These updates and expansions also include daily "Preguntas del día" conversation prompts (like my level 3 stuff) so that I could get my ones very accustomed to asking and answering basic questions in Spanish, from Lesson 1 - on. The Lesson 1 question (idea and vocab taken from the First Day skit) is, "¿Tú tocas la guitarra?" with the answer stems "Sí, toco la guitarra _______ (how?)" or "No, no toco la guitarra. Yo toco ____________ (instrument)." In class, I explain exactly what all that means, brainstorm possible ways to finish each of those answers, model asking and answering, put them in their groups of 3 or 4, and go! It's pretty fun to watch level 1s go to town talking to each other about whether they play the guitar or not. Ha.

I included lots of translation activities in case you'd like to supplement the lesson with some independent "quiet" work (yes, please!) so you can take a breather in class. I know some teachers don't like to use translations as practice, but I'm a huge fan of them, especially for loud, rowdy, unfocused classes. I simply circulate around the room helping people as they work, and I gather a lot of good information on who knows how much Spanish I've taught. Your choice if you want to allow use of online dictionaries as they work and/or partner them up to work on it together. (It's laborious to really sit there looking up every word in a story, so I do often allow the dictionary use because they will tend to go ahead and try to translate what they can without looking things up, but a dictionary keeps things moving along for people who get stuck occasionally. Just a side note.)

I also streamlined and beefed up all the readings (to make sure there WAS one for every lesson, an expanded version of the skit usually,) and moved the reading activity to being the first one right after the warm-up quiz. In my classes they are more focused on reading at that point in the class, plus, if they were absent the class before and missed the previous skit, this is a way of seeing those vocab words in context in the story and hopefully getting a start on acquiring at least most of them.

My 2017 vocab list has all the grammar topics more clearly and consistently defined and listed, plus I created homework assignments for each one. Those are all included in these lessons, and you can either assign them as homework or use them as worksheets in class. I still use the grammar resources I listed in this post, but I did make a few of my own grammar worksheets for level 1 that are included in these new updates as well.

What else???? That's all I can think of for now...you can also follow me on TPT to get notified as I continue uploading throughout this month and over the summer. I hope to have all of 1A up for sale and at least a start on 1B by Fall. There will also be an ebook and print Spanish 1A 2017 version for sale on Amazon soon.

Shoutout to Julia Sullivan who was asking me a few years ago if I were ever going to update my 2009 Spanish 1 lessons, to whom I replied, "No, because it's way too much work." :)

Spanish 1A Lesson 9 Story Video

All right. Enough of this spending hours trying to make pre-animated people look like they are doing something besides just standing there waving at you. I decided to just try narrating my story with my own stick figure drawings and this little video is what I came up with. (And yes, I AM a big dork, as you will see and hear for yourself!)



I was cracking myself up with my attempts at voice acting, plus my camera work is admittedly pretty homemade, but hey. This only took me about an hour to produce (two takes) as opposed to five hours last Sunday with Powtoon.

I tried to slow the narration down quite a bit due to feedback I received from my students on last week's (Spanish 1A Lesson 8) animated video. I'll debut this new one in class this week and see how it goes. They weren't super thrilled with the animated story video in terms of being able to learn from it, but seemed to love the vocab one, so I made another vocab one for Lesson 9 with Powtoon:


This is definitely a work in progress, but so is teaching itself, so...welcome to my journey. :-)

My First Animated Video! Spanish 1A Lesson 8 - El muchacho que juega a los videojuegos

Guess what I spent all day yesterday doing? Yeah, um...teaching myself how to make animated videos. Here's my first attempt, which took me about 5 hours.

Why?

I'm desperately seeking new ways to present comprehensible input in huge, rowdy, loud classes of Spanish 1. Specifically, ways I can do less work in class while my students do more (learning-centered) work. I need to conserve my energy and my voice, both of which by the end of some days have taken quite a beating. Also, I don't know about you guys, but I've noticed more and more over the past 8 years or so that sometimes it's just hard to get students to focus on a skit. It's hard to corral your actors; it's hard to get the "audience" to pay attention. The generation we have now is so media-oriented that if it's not on a screen, they just can't seem to focus on it. (Am I the only one having this issue???)

Also they have the attention span of a flea, so I'm thinking a 3-minute video is about right.

And if you know me, you know that I am ALWAYS looking for ways to make this job easier. If I can spend 5 hours on Sunday making animated videos and then relax in class, I'll do it.

I also made this video to introduce the vocab for this story:

And this video quiz/worksheet that I'm selling on Teachers Pay Teachers to go with these two videos. It has 33 total questions, 18 of which are about the animated story. My plan is to show the vocab video first while they write down (or type) the English on their Spanish vocab lists, then show the animated story video once, then pass out the video quiz, maybe have them write down whatever answers they can remember, then show the animated story a second time while they check/fill in their answers. Then they can answer the 15 "Preguntas personales" (PQA-style) at the end, and then we can go over that. (Will update later with my results!)

If all goes well, my plan is to do two animated videos per week plus video quizzes and upload everything as I go. You can follow me on YouTube and/or Teachers Pay Teachers if you want to teach Spanish 1 along with me and enjoy the crazy ride. :-)

My Spanish 1A Lesson Plans Available As Ebook on Amazon for 9.99!

Okay, don't pass out, but...I finally worked out how I could make my lesson plan books available as ebooks as well as 8.5x11 paperbacks on Amazon!!!!

My Spanish 1A 2009 ebook is available for purchase now for 9.99. You can download my book, then download the Kindle e-reader for free to any mobile, tablet, notebook, laptop, or desktop device. If you want to project the quizzes, vocab, etc. to a screen just go to the lesson or page you want and enlarge it so students can read it.

You can also now order the gorgeous, professionally bound printed version of Spanish 1A 2009 on Amazon for $39.95 (and right now the Amazon page for the print version says "free shipping!")

I will be putting all of my lesson plan books on Amazon over the next few weeks. Follow me as an author on Amazon and you'll get notified every time I publish a new lesson plan book. Here is the link.

Please let all your Spanish teacher friends know that they can get their hands on my lesson plans both electronically and in print for a greatly reduced price now that I am not personally handling the printing, packaging, and shipping of my own lesson plan books. Hallelujah!

9/4/18 UPDATE: All my books are now available as ebook as well as print on Amazon. The easiest way to see the entire list is to go to my author page.

What To Do When the Novelty and Fun of Doing Skits Wears Off in Class

Got a question this past week about pacing and keeping skits exciting in class:

Hola Jalen.

I purchased your lesson plans for my 8th grade Spanish 1 class.  I have decided to solely use TPRS this year with your lesson plans.  My students like the stories so far and are acquiring the language quickly.  We have only done two stories at this point.

My questions are:

1.  Do you get through all 27 stories by the end of the year?  I wonder if I'm going too fast.  I see my students daily for 40 minutes.  This is the 3rd week of school.

2.  After only acting two stories, the novelty seems to be wearing off a little bit.  I am trying to do other activities in addition to the ones that you have in your plans.  Since I'm new at circling and TPRS, I'm trying to improve so that my lessons aren't boring even though they're repetitive.  Do you have any suggestions for me?

Thank you in advance for answering my questions.  I have really enjoyed your curriculum.

Liddia

Hi Liddia,

Glad to hear things are (or were) going really well with the first couple of stories! To answer your questions:

1. Each of my lesson plan books is designed to fill up one semester of Spanish, so 1A would be the first semester and 1B would be second semester, but, no, I don't always get through all of the stories in a given semester or year, and it works out okay. But if you think you're going too fast and are worried that you won't have enough stories to fill up a whole year, you may have to space them out and alternate with a reading, games, and/or culture day here and there.

2. Yes, I do have a suggestion for what to do about the novelty wearing off of doing skits. Don't do circling. I don't do it because it drives the kids (and me) nuts. Just narrate the skit all the way through with actors and a few props, then sit the actors down and do Q&A all the way through the story in Spanish, coaching them to respond chorally. That plus the reading (which I now put off until the following day’s lesson, first thing after the warm-up quiz) is enough repetition for my expectations of how much Spanish my students need to learn in a given year. Also, in my classes the skits themselves are more fun if I have the class choose the actors. For more info on exactly how I do that, see my blog posts on Getting Actors part 1 and part 2.

Another suggestion - don't do a skit every single day if they start acting bored with it. Break it up with the ideas I mentioned above.

A third suggestion - I also have a blog post on 25 Ideas for Extending the Learning With Each Story that might add some variety and spice to what you're doing.

Give yourself time and compassion as you're learning to pull off excellent skits in class. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out how to make it fun every time, and even then, there are simply going to be some "off" days with students. Don't let it get you down. Next time you do a skit, act like everything's great and the skit they are going to act out is awesome!

Hope this helps, and let me know how it goes.

Jalen

(Thanks Liddia for the great questions! Everyone else, feel free to chime in with other suggestions that work for you!)

Why Spanish 3 is the Right Level for Really Focusing on Grammar

Classes started for me this past week, and Friday I taught my first explicit grammar lesson in level 3 (a review of subject pronouns, their forms and uses.) I used a three-page "packet" copied from a Spanish grammar workbook that I bought on Amazon, the kind of workbook you buy if you're a college student or other adult looking to teach yourself Spanish grammar.

My class had just seen and heard the first skit in my 3A lessons, The Guy Who Fished in the Lake, answered my questions about the skit in Spanish, had a 4-minute break to play on their phones, talk to friends, etc., and then I passed out the grammar packet. Not usually the most-fun thing on the list, but they accepted it meekly and without complaining because we're still new to each other this year.

Then we started going through the information in the packet and filling out the exercises together. I do my grammar worksheets with them, projecting mine on the document camera as we talk about it, reason out the answers, and write everything out together.

Friday in class as we were going over the subject pronouns, I had several "aha" reactions to the grammar details. For example, when we wrote out a sentence that started with "Tú," I said, "Okay, 'tu' has a what...?" A few students: "Accent mark?" Me: "Yes." (Putting accent mark on it under the document camera.) Me: "When it doesn't have an accent mark on it, it means 'your,' like 'tu perro.'" Several students: "Oh!"

Now, it's not as if they haven't been presented with that information before, possibly many times in levels 1 and 2. But these level 3 students now have some decent fluency. I can speak quite a bit of free-form Spanish to them in class and they can understand and respond. (I gave them an entire talk about the history of Spanish and its connection to Latin in Spanish this past week, of course very simplified, but all in Spanish, and they understood what I was saying and answered questions about it.) At level 3 they are ready to dig into the nuts and bolts of grammar because they have something to hang it on. They have a good basic understanding of Spanish--Spanish the language, not Spanish the rules. Learning the rules of a language you already know makes so much more sense than learning rules alone, when you can't even read the sentences you're filling in the blanks to complete.

All this is not to say that we don't teach explicit grammar in levels 1 and 2 at my school. We certainly do, pretty much every block. But it is to say that the focus (in my opinion) at those levels should always be on developing fluency first, not on learning grammar rules. I can fix up and expand their grammar knowledge just fine in level 3 and beyond if they know Spanish. If they barely know any Spanish, I have to teach them Spanish first before they can really grasp and use the rules, and that just slows down the process.

Using My Spanish Lesson Plan Books with Avancemos, Realidades, Ven Conmigo, En Español, etcetera

I've been getting a lot of very similar questions this month on email about using my books with textbooks other than Exprésate (the textbook we use in my district, and the one that my lesson plans are aligned with in terms of vocab lists and grammar topics.) Here is a recent email I received:

Hi, my name is Tammy.  I teach Level 1.  I taught middle school Spanish for 16 years and I've been teaching high school level for the past 2.  I've always pretty much followed the textbook, but added my own supplemental materials and ideas.  I'm looking for way to "shake up" my teaching that gets me away from the textbook more often and gets my students more motivated and using Spanish so I ordered your 1A and 1B books.   At our school, we use the Avancemos series.  I'm excited to use your lessons but am concerned about the students moving to level 2.  The level 2 teachers stick to the textbooks.  Have you looked at the Avancemos series?  I know that your lessons are modeled after a different textbook, but have you compared them?  Any suggestions for how to incorporate the textbook occasionally so that my students aren't overwhelmed when they go into level 2 and deal exclusively with the textbook?  Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much!!!

My response:

Hi Tammy,

I haven't compared Exprésate (our textbook) to Avancemos, but I'd be willing to bet it's almost exactly the same. Exprésate (and every other mainstream Spanish 1 textbook I've seen) starts out with greetings and introductions, then goes into numbers, colors, family, school supplies and subjects, food, houses and rooms, food, dishes, activities, clothing, shopping, etc. The grammar topics are present tense, adjectives, pronouns, present progressive, and a little touch on preterit in chapter 8 (the last chapter I drew from for my 1B book.) There may be some variance in the order of those basic vocab groups in Avancemos, but by the end of Spanish 1 you will have taught a ton of just about any textbook’s vocab lists. If you are supposed to be on a certain chapter during a certain month, you could probably rearrange my lessons to match the vocab set you're on in Avancemos. If you didn't already, look at the vocab lists for my 2009 Spanish 1A and 1B and you'll see exactly the vocab and grammar sequence I used and how well it fits with what you need. 

Link to 1A vocab list is here.
Link to 1B vocab list is here.
[UPDATED 2017 Spanish 1A Lessons available in my TPT store now.]

As far as students being overwhelmed by the textbook in Spanish 2, they probably won't like the textbook but I'm betting they won't be overwhelmed by the level of difficulty by any means. They'll be freewriting 100 word narrative essays in Spanish in 10 minutes with no dictionary, be able to tell a basic story in Spanish off the top of their heads, and be able to read (translate) a full page of Spanish out loud in five minutes or less by the end of Spanish 1. Now what I would do so that you don't run into problems meeting the textbook teachers’ expectations is use either your textbook grammar exercises if they make sense (Exprésate's don't) or find other grammar worksheets and teach the heck out of conjugating present tense verbs and whatever other grammar topics the Spanish 2 teachers expect your kids to know. I teach explicit grammar for the final 15 minutes of every block and that works really well for me.

So that's how I would mostly incorporate the textbook, is use it as a resource for grammar. And of course if Avancemos has any other activities that you've used and liked, throw 'em in when you're on that set of vocab in my lessons.

Hope this helps! Thanks again and let me know if you have any other questions that arise.

How to Do Your Speaking Tests in 15 Minutes

If you're like me, it's that time of year (final exams) that you have to figure out some way of testing your students' speaking in Spanish that makes sense and doesn't take up several days of class time. For a few years, I put on a movie and sat in a corner in the back of the room, calling individual students to come sit nervously with me asking a series of questions (which usually involved me speaking way more Spanish than they did...example:  Me:  ¿Cuáles actividades te gusta hacer en tu tiempo libre?  Them: Basquetbol.) Then, I got the idea of giving them a choice of three or so storyboards (drawings from skits we had acted out in class) and having them retell me the story from the pictures while I sat listening, counting their complete sentences, maybe making a note of correctly conjugated verbs, and grading it with a rubric.  Now they were doing ALL the talking in Spanish, and it felt great to hear how much they had learned, kid after kid.

The only problem with that idea was how long it took, because they talked so long. I found myself even cutting some of them off after five or six minutes of speaking just so I could get a few more students done before the bell. So it would take about two and half to three 90-minute blocks to get through a class of 32-ish, which is a lot more class time than I feel I have to spare at the end of the semester with finals, final reviews, and everything else that's going on.

Now I have a new system that works so much better for me. Here are the steps:

1. Set up a Google Voice account. It's easy and free.
2. Take the phone number you receive for Google Voice and make an instruction sheet with it that says:

1. Call Sra. Waltman’s Google Voice: 

719-XXX-XXXX

2. Leave a message:

a. “Me llamo _______________” (full name)

b. Title of cuento: ____________________

c.  Tell story in Spanish, using at least one full sentence per picture.  More details = higher score

d. “¡Adiós!” + hang up

3. Either make copies of the instruction sheet (you can do this on the back of the storyboard copies) or project it from your laptop onto a screen.
4. Make copies of the storyboards. I do three storyboards, enough copies of each for the entire class, on three different colors of paper so it's easy to sort them into separate piles.
5. Day of the speaking test, as they are freaking out about having to take a speaking test, tell them it's going to be no big deal. They are simply going to tell the story to their partner like they always do in class, but this time record themselves on their phones.
6. Pass out a copy of all three storyboards to all students and give them some time to think about which one they want to tell.
7. Do one "Practice Run" where they tell their chosen story to their partner for one minute while you circulate to supply words they couldn't remember from that story. I don't let them write anything down, but I will tell them how to say things like "marked out" and "cooked him on the grill" (two examples from yesterday's speaking tests.) Switch partners and let the other partner practice.
8. Say, "Okay, partner one, get your phone or borrow someone else's. Ready? Dial!" So they call the Google Voice number and start talking. (I tell them that if my Voicemail cuts them off, that is okay, that just means they talked for three minutes already so that is enough talking.)
9. Tell your Partner 2s to go ahead and dial when their partner is finished. I like to keep the room kind of noisy with talking so that no one gets left out trying to record their speaking test with everyone else listening to them.

And...I'm done! Except for the grading, which I do during plans, breaks, a few after school, etc. over finals week. I don't always listen to every word of every recording. You'll get a really good idea of how well they are speaking within the first 30 seconds - 1 minute. However, a lot of times I do let the whole thing play while I do my filing, end-of semester cleaning out and organizing, etc. in my classroom. I record the scores alphabetically on a rubric and when a class is all filled out, I'm ready to enter it into my gradebook, done. And incidentally, if a kid doesn't say their name and I can't figure out who it is, I text the number to ask. I usually have to do that about once or twice per semester, and the student usually thinks it's pretty funny, we wish each other a good break, and that's that.

If you have a good method for doing your speaking tests or other ideas to add, please share in the comments!

Having Students Grade Their Own Work

Just got this (glowing) email from Julia Sullivan, a teacher who bought some books from me a few weeks ago, with a question:

Jalen, I just wanted to give you an update on how things are going in my classroom now that I am using your books.  Awesomely!!  The students love it, I love it and things are going great. I feel like finally my students are learning Spanish when for my entire career, more than 30 years, I never got the feeling that they really learned Spanish at all.  I have been looking for something to do differently for years and I really feel that your programs are an answer to my prayers.

As and aside, this year I was given 6 classes and I have almost 190 students total and using your method of letting the students grade their own stuff has saved me so much work.  I would be a wreck right now otherwise even after only 2 weeks of teaching.  I have students every day telling me that Spanish is their favorite class.  And others that say "I am finally going to pass Spanish!"  

If you get a moment, I would like to hear your philosophy on why it is that you let them grade their own stuff.  I think I have an idea but I would like to hear your point of view

Gratefully yours,

Julia

First of all, it feels so good to know that my stuff has made life easier for a teacher with a HUNDRED AND NINETY students...! I do know how that feels from a few years ago when I was teaching Spanish 1 and 2, and I taught those levels for eight years. (If you're on the block schedule, that's what your numbers get up to at the lower levels. At the moment, I'm making out like a bandit with my classes at 10, 16, 21, and 26 in the upper levels. Don't hate me, please.)

So, my philosophy on why I let them grade their own stuff. Well, I wouldn't say I "let" them, I make them do it.  Here's why:
- To save myself time.  Lots of time.  A class can grade their own multiple-choice, matching, and fill-in the blanks on a sizable test in about 10 minutes or less. (I of course still grade their essays.)
- Instant feedback for students, which they actually seem to like quite a bit.

I have them grade their own tests, because you can get into trouble having them switch papers and see each other's grades.  (Yes, they do tend to call out how they are doing as they are grading, e.g. "I only missed two!" "A hundred percent so far!" "I bombed it, Ms. Waltman!" etc. But, that's not the same as having your super-smart partner next to you see your test performance without you choosing to share it.)

After the test, I pass out red pens and say, "All pens and pencils on the ground or back in your backpacks. No pens and pencils on top of the desks that are not the red grading pen." Then I make a show of announcing and doing a "pen check" and walk around looking down the rows sideways to see who still has a regular pen or pencil on their desks. There are usually one or two because they are distracted, and I say, "Greg, put your pencil on the floor please," and they go, "Oh..." and do it. Once all that is situated, I read the key aloud as many times as anyone needs to hear it while they grade it. If it's fill in the blank, I announce and/or take questions for partial credit and award it on the spot. Such as, they got the correct I.O. pronoun but it's in the wrong place - half credit.

I have them count up how many they missed and write it at the top, then turn it in for me to grade the essay (if there is one.)  In general, I have found students to be very honest and accurate.  I glance through the tests as I'm putting scores in the gradebook and occasionally find mistakes in the grading and correct it, but I don't worry overmuch about missing something on this. Will the world really come to an end if the kid gets an extra point they didn't earn on a test? Not my Spanish-teaching world, anyway. Chances are, it was an accident, and even if they did it on purpose, for me it's not worth fretting over--if I catch it, I'll fix it, and if I don't, oh well.

I put this practice of having kids grade their own tests together with getting a Teacher's Aide (a student) and having them alphabetize all my papers, and voila: tons of time saved in grading and entering grades in the gradebook.

Giving Classroom Directions in Spanish?

I just got this email from my friend Liz:

Hi Jalen!  I have purchased your new books for level 1 and they look great.  

Hey, I was wondering if you would please describe for me your use of English in the classroom.  It's hard to give directions and such in Spanish for new beginners.  I'm okay with using English, but I'd just like to know what you do.

Thanks!!!

My response:

Hi Liz!  In levels 1 and 2 I did tend to use a lot of English directions.  Well, all English directions pretty much.  I let the daily skit, the Q&A afterwards, and the page of reading be the bulk of my target language input.  I'm teaching with a colleague now (Carrie) who uses almost exclusively Spanish in levels 1 and 2 and not just with my stories but somehow enforces them asking to go to the bathroom, everything, in Spanish.  This fall she moved classrooms and her door will be facing mine 5 feet away so I plan to spy and learn all her secrets.  (Or maybe I can get her to write a guest blog for me or something.)  Anyway, I still give some directions in English in levels 3, PreAP3, 4, and to be honest AP as well, because maybe I'm lazy or just not skilled in this area or I want to just hurry up and say, "hold up the grammar worksheet so I can see it when I look down your row and check off that you did it" and be done with it.  I will say, the Spanish directions I do give work best when they are repetitive things we always do every day, because then after about 4 class periods or so they know what I’m asking with no explanation.  And, it is my goal to increase my own use of Spanish every year and figure out all the tricks for how to make that work without whole-class-revolt.

I will also say that I have always been happy with how much Spanish my students were learning at levels 1 & 2, and that the main input of skits, questions about the skit, and readings in Spanish is key for language acquisition at those levels; directions in Spanish is probably is not key.  In my opinion.

Hope this helps!

J

Just to add a note for the upper levels:  in levels 3, PreAP3, and 4, I do ever-increasing amounts of Spanish class discussion in additions to the skits and readings, and in AP the instruction is reading and listening to authentic sources combined with class discussion in Spanish, so maybe this is how I get away with giving directions in English more than I probably should.

Hopefully more later this Fall on how my colleague Carrie maintains so much Spanish in 1 and 2...

Gesturing the Vocab and Homework in First Year

I'm getting questions on gesturing and first year homework that I want to address for all interested.  

I use gestures every day for vocab introduction/retention before the story and we gesture everything on the vocab list for the lesson.  I do it because I've experimented both ways and for me their long-term vocab retention is so much better with gestures that I just can't justify skipping them.  In my experience, the gestures don't have to be "good" - there just has to be a motion that goes with each word or phrase of the day.  Even the process of thinking up gestures (get the kids to help you if you are stuck) means they are thinking about what the words mean, and every second you can get their brain on that task helps.

Also, you don't have to have different gestures for every single word or phrase over time. Thumbs up or down in my class can mean a lot of things; I just don't use it for two things on the same day.

One friend asked me specifically if it's possible to gesture the vocab in certain lessons, like Spanish 1A L13.  Here's what I would do with the story vocab chunks in Lesson 13 of 1A:

Ella escribe (motion writing or typing) un anuncio personal (hold up fingers to make shape of a little box--the "anuncio")

Me gustan los deportes (thumbs up, then swing a bat or shoot a basketball, or whatever sport they like)

No me gusta el ajedrez (thumbs down, then thoughtfully move a chess piece on your desk)

¿Cómo eres?/¿Cómo es…? (point at someone and then shrug and hold your hands up like you are wondering what they are like, and for Como es, they can also point at me and shrug, wondering what I'm like)

Quiero conocerte mañana a la una (hands clasped like you're begging (that is how I always do "quiero"), shake hands with imaginary person (that is how I always do conocer), point forward to "mañana", then hold up one finger for 1:00 or point at the clock)

Don't forget to do "eyes closed" gesturing, one time through each word or phrase, at the end of the short practice. I would say I practice each phrase 4-5 times, more if they are slow/lethargic/distracted, before eyes-closed assessment. But everyone has to do the gestures during practice so I know if they know what I'm saying, and I make it obvious I'm looking all around the room to see if everyone knows the words.  If someone stops gesturing, I ask (with a smile,) "Brian, I just need to make sure--do you know what 'resentidas' means?" If he can tell me, I say, "Good!" If he can't, I say, "Okay, it means 'resentful,' and we're folding our arms like we're mad..." For me, that fixes it at least that day. I sometimes have to ask the same kid the next day, but pretty soon they realize all they have to do to keep me off their back is do the gesture with everybody else.

Quick story on this topic: I had a kid in PreAP Spanish 3 who had to leave the room for a couple of minutes last week right after writing down the vocab on his vocab list. (BTW, I normally don't allow anyone to leave at that point if I can help it.) While he was gone we did the gesture practice for what he'd written down. He came back just as we were doing eyes closed gesturing. He had zero idea what I was saying or what the gestures were, so he kept his eyes open and was visibly shocked that everyone understood and was doing everything I said like little robots. When everybody else opened their eyes, I said, "Sean, that was weird how they knew all that complicated Spanish I was saying, wasn't it?" He said, "Yeah!" with a big grin. I told the class they just don't realize how cool it is that they can motion everything I say unless they have to leave like that and come back in a couple of minutes later and witness it.

Okay, homework. Homework in first and second year for us usually is grammar worksheets and translating stories, and I would give it once or twice a week on the A/B 90-minute block schedule.  I think Alexis has first year students take readings home and translate them to their parents, then parents sign at the bottom that they did it.  She has some cheating on this of course, but she also gets rave reviews from parents about how much their kids are learning and can demonstrate.

Hope this helps!

Incorporating Student Input into Scripted Stories

Got a question from my friend Dori V. last week:

I have a question for you that kind of relates to your blog post about scripted vs. spontaneous stories.  I have a couple of classes of 8th graders who had me last year for 1A, and when I start to tell a story, a few kids in each class make all sorts of suggestions about the plot line in French, which is fantastic, but which doesn't really follow where I would like the story to go, and that I feel keeps the story in the realm of what they already know (and often includes hitting, which can be funny but so are other things they haven't thought of.)

Do you have any advice about how to encourage those who are speaking French (which I'm thrilled about) but still keeping the story semi-scripted?  I can be pretty flexible about the storyline, but I don't want to be too flexible.

Hope all is well!!!

dori

My response:

I think your problem is a happy one - they sound like they are really engaged and having fun.  I do try to take input when I possibly can without derailing the story completely.  I think you have to just be the judge-in-the-moment of when you have time for a quick side plot or comment or detail, and when you really have to stick to the target phrase list.  Sometimes I take their input even if they didn't already know the word in Spanish, and just say, “Ok, he takes off in a rocket would be ‘sale en un cohete.’  Ok, el chico sale en un cohete…” Then just pick back up where you were in the story:  “y llega a la casa de La Sra. Doubtfire.”  

If you feel like you're arguing with them a lot about this, tell them you need to make sure the target phrases get in the story so they can learn them, so please hold their ideas until later and they can make up their own version. Then maybe let them write their own version of the story the next day in groups and act it out or something (if you have time.)  If you have a bunch of loud, creative kids, give them an outlet for it if you can, and enjoy the fact that they are so enthusiastic about your class.  (Well, that’s how I choose to look at it when they start driving me nuts with suggestions for this or that, anyway!  “Ms. Waltman, we should do this.  Ms. Waltman, you should do that.  Why don’t we ever ____.”  I get a lot of that sometimes from certain students.  It’s actually a sign of affection…see my post on “Affectionate Whining.”)  

Another idea would be right after you tell the scripted version of the story, have them tell the story to their partner with whatever changes they want to make.  Of course, as you walk around, they are going to be asking "How do you say chainsaw?  How do you say duct tape?  How do you say man-eating aardvark?" so you have to either tell them (if you know off the top of your head,) say I don't know, tell them to just say aardvark for that part, and let them have their fun.

Transitioning to Past Tense with Stories

Had another couple of questions from my friend Jeanette in Iowa, about teaching past tense.  I've had these questions from others so I'll go ahead and answer them for all interested.

Transitioning to past tense - here is how it works in my books (more or less following Exprésate's curriculum sequence:)

Past tense is first introduced in the last five lessons of Spanish 1B 2009 Version, in the readings only.  I still tell the story in class in present tense, then have students read a version of it in past tense aloud with a partner (reading for me in class = translating it out loud into English so I know if they know what it says.)  This is pretty much no big deal for the students; they can easily recognize and read "miró" in context after seeing "mira" a few million times in the course of my Spanish 1A & B 2009 Version.  I might have to explain that "fue" means went, but that's about it.  

I don't prepare for these past tense readings in Spanish 1B 2009 with any kind of preterit/imperfect lesson; they just get the page of reading, I tell them it's in past tense Spanish and I want to hear them read it in past tense English please, and they read.  No big deal.  My goal here is that they simply start seeing and recognizing past tense Spanish verbs in context.

As they are getting these past tense readings at the tail end of 1B, I might do a grammar lesson on preterit and/or imperfect if I have time, but not until they've already read a few stories in past tense and had time to notice the change in endings on their own.  (I really think I'm wasting my time teaching explicit grammar when they have had no contact with that particular grammar structure already via comprehensible input, but that is just my own opinion.)  I haven't taught Spanish 1 in a couple of years, but I know my colleague Alexis didn't quite get to the final 5 lessons and that's fine.  We plan for her to pick up where she left off in 1B at the beginning of Spanish 2, which will work just as well for my purposes, which is for them to truly acquire Spanish proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, and listening and not just rush through the material trying to memorize for tests.

Past tense continues of course in Spanish 2A and 2B 2009.  The first couple of chapters of Exprésate 2 are a huge review of Spanish 1 (and there are long, long lists of new vocab,) so I wrote the scripts to tell in class as well as the readings in present tense in order to hopefully give students more time to nail down present tense more fully before heading into past tense.  Starting after the midterm, the scripts in 2A are in present and the readings are in past, through to the end of the first semester, much like the last few lessons of 1B.

My Spanish 2B 2009 is all in past tense, scripts as well as readings, with the vocab list shortened and simplified so we could focus 100% on getting preterit and imperfect down pat.  My 2A stories are actually pretty hard to understand and read vocab-wise, so in 2B I took it down a notch like I said to try to make past tense verbs more of the focus than complicated, endless vocab lists.

My Spanish 3A & B 2012 is all in past tense, scripts and readings, with present tense popping back up mostly in the conversation and class discussion topics and journal writing prompts.  I find my students still need plenty of practice in present tense in order to prepare for the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam, and this fall I intend to step that up quite a bit.  You can't make a lot of errors in present tense and make a 3 on the AP Spanish exam, because that's considered "frequent errors in elementary structures" (and a 2) on the AP grading rubric.  So I say you really can't overteach or overpractice present tense, and I'm happy with how much I kept it going through the end of 2A.

Anyway, that's my method for now!