Blog

 Second semester, Palmer High School.  I have 4 classes of Spanish 1.  Each class is 50 minutes long.  On Tuesdays and Wednesdays classes are twice their normal length (block) and meet only once over those 2 days.

Last semester at Palmer I taught essentially the same curriculum as I did at Pikes Peak Community College, so I did not blog about it.  I taught Las aventuras de Isabela, maps, a unit on La Llorona and a song by Pablo Alboran.  I started with the backward plan from Isabela that we use for Fluency Fast.

In the first week of the second semester I taught Chapter 1 of Cuentame, by Carol Gaab to catch up with the rest of the department.  Most of the vocabulary had already been taught.  There were 11 new words.

In the second week of the semester I started Isabela captura un congo using the reader and the Teacher's Guide as resources.

Day 1:  Using the slide show and videos from the Teacher's Guide, I taught (in English) about Costa Rica, the core problems of howler monkeys being electrocuted on electrical wires in Costa Rica and the solutions to this environmental problem.  I discussed wildlife, flora and fauna in Costa Rica and the country's focus on sustainability and protection of the environment and it's designation as "The Happiest Place on Earth."  Much of this cultural information is on the Teacher's Guide, also in English.  The videos are of howler monkeys and each is 30 seconds to 1 minute long.

I introduced the vocabulary in Chapter 1 that had not been previously taught in Isabela (there is a vocab list on the Teacher's Manual of words not taught in Isabela) through TPR.  I also reviewed body parts a little, as they come up in Congo.

Day 2:  (block day... double long period)

We made a checklist of how each person individually reads best.  First, we listened to the first half of the audio recording of Chapter 1.  Students did not have the books.  They wrote down how much they understood.

Then we read together the first paragraph and I asked questions and translated any words anyone didn't know.  They wrote down how much they understood of the first paragraph.  This continued as they evaluated translating sentence by sentence, reading independently, translating with a partner, asking and answering questions about the content, acting out portions with actors in front of the room and in small groups, etc.  At the end they all had a list they could refer to later of what worked best for them.  

We read and discussed Chapter 1, paying attention to things like, why the mom is still 29 years old even though Isabela aged and what possible careers the mom might have that could take her all over the world travelling.

Day 3:  Introduced vocabulary for Chapter 2, introduced new body part vocabulary through TPR.   Co-created a TPRS story using the vocabulary.  Read Chapter 2 using a variety of reading strategies.

Day 4:  Introduced the vocabulary for Chapter 3, but did not read Chapter 3.  Asked for 2 volunteers to act out a vocabulary word like charades while students guessed the word.  In order to make sure that each student participated, we used popsicle sticks to call on students.  (This is output, so  we spent very little time on it, but it was fun and fast and different.)  Played a quick game of Buzz at the end of the period as a Friday game.  (Wrote the numbers 1-30 on the board --written, not numbers.)  I have not really taught numbers well so far.  Buzz is a very short game --- high stress.... high attention.... high focus by all students... students who don't know the number can read them off the board, so everyone can play.  Multiples of 3 and any number with a 3 in it are replaced by the word "Buzz".  Every mess up makes the game re-start at One.)

We are now ready to start Chapter 3.

1. The "study the map" miscommunication

2. Reading Chapter 9 in groups

3. Reader's Theater -- Chapter 10

4. Character's worksheet from Teacher's Manual

5. Beginning the numbers game

6. Homework - where do you want to travel?  What's on your bucket list?  Choose a place, bring in a picture, tell us where it is and how to get there.

1. The students came in having studied for the "map test."  I have found their strengths!  They are enthusiastic memorizers.  I clarified that my intention was that they study it... and that then I would teach it.  We will talk geography and capitals and where we want to go this week.  I wrote the words norte, sur, oeste and este on the board and explained the "bucket list" homework.

2.  Students read Chapter 9 -- I wrote words they didn't know on the board so I know what to continue recycling in the next few weeks.

puente - bridge

veo - I see

cuerda - rope

quinto - 5th

heridas - wounds

se muere - dies

se murió - died

muerto - muerto

han muerto - has died

semana - week

puede - can

trae - brings

a veces - sometimes

enseña - teaches

ayuda - helps

también - also

cosa - thing

voz - voice

meses - months

escucha - listens

me duele - hurts

enojado - angry

Body parts we aren't sure we know yet (Chapter 10)

estómago, espalda, mejilla, nariz, cara, boca, 

3. Chapter 10 - 

Two actors played the parts of Daniel and Isabela.  I read as they acted out the surfing scene using a prop for the surfboard made out of the back of a butcher paper pad.  Students in the class said, "sigue" or "atrás" and "rápido" or "despacio" to make the actors and me go forward or rewind.  The more we did it the more the directions changed.  A couple of the students started adding "romanticamente" and "como Arnold Schwarzenneger" and "como un elefante" which made it hilarious.  After going forward and backward many times I asked the class if they wanted to do it again with different actors.  The current actors thought that was a great idea, but since it was one student who had come up with all of the great ideas... romanticamente... como un elefante... they made him play BOTH roles.  It was hilarious.

Afterward they helped me re-tell what had happened in the story without using their books.

We read the rest of the chapter together, which finished the book.  There is a cute dialogue scene with Daniel and Isabela that contains a joke.

4.  We did one of the worksheets from the Teacher's Manual with sentences about things that happened in the book.  They had to identify what character it described.  We will go over the answers on Wednesday.

5.  I intended to use the last 5 minutes of class to teach "Buzz" but instead we counted off and when someone messed up, we started over.  It was not terribly successful, so they are all studying numbers 1-30 again so that we can play "Buzz" on Wednesday.

6. Homework - where do you want to travel?  What's on your bucket list?  Choose a place, bring in a picture, tell us where it is and how to get there.

Monday:

When you come in.... look over the Reina story and write down any words you still don't feel like you know and need more time with.  They wrote words on the board and then broke into groups.  I passed out butcher paper and markers.  Their assignment was to create a 6-frame, illustrated story on the butcher paper that they had created together and used as many of the words on the board as possible (no requirement for a certain number, though.)  They had to use those words often in their stories in order to teach them.  Then they had to act out their story for the rest of the class without reading.

They prepared and presented their stories and then I gave a 10 question quiz over 10 words. Some were words we had just done in the stories and some were high frequency words from the story that we hadn't even mentioned.  By NOT choosing those words to write on the board, they had indicated that those other words were already "sticky."

On the back side of the quiz they wrote a freewrite and wrote the story they had just performed and created.

Homework for Wednesday:  Read through Chapter 7.

Homework for Monday:  Study map.  Study numbers 1-30.

Wednesday: 

PQA:  Lengthy discussion... que te gusta hacer?... y que no te gusta hacer?... using the vocabulary list from the end of chapter 5.  It is all words we have already done with the exception of a couple of new words which we added as people said they like to do them.    Vocab we ended up using:  descansar, hacer ejercicio, bailar, trabajar, leer, mañana, tarde, noche, concierto, galería, confianza, antes, tocar la guitarra, pagar las cuentas, subir montañas, salen, llegan, fines de semana, sábado, domingo, los lunes, causo estrés.

We listened to Chapter 8 -- the audio book for Congo -- together, stopping frequently to be sure they understood the words.  I showed pictures from the Teacher's Guide for Isabela captura un congo and talked about the electrocuted monkeys.  

Homework:  Now that you know the geography of Latin America, where do you want to go?  What's on your bucket list.  For example... do you want to see Machu Picchu?  Do you know what country that is in? =)  Bring in a picture of somewhere you want to go and tell everyone where it is and why you want to go there.

This coming week:  

Watch Isabela's video book from Congo Teacher's Manual.  
How knowing the geography of Latin America can make you not sound stupid in conversations.  
Finish Congo.  
Take 10 question character quiz from Congo Teacher's Manual.  
Focus on va a and present progressive structures.  
Focus more on basic conversational abilities.
map quiz

¿Por qué debo estudiar español?

El cuento de T.J., el hijo de Reina

Por Karen Rowan y la clase de español

Reina es muy bonita y muy inteligente.  Es especial. Reina tiene un problema. Su hijo no le ayuda en la casa. Duerme todo el día. No limpia la casa. No lava la ropa. La pobre mama limpia toda la casa. Reina lava toda la ropa. Reina limpia afuera de la casa. Recoge (picks up) toda la caca de perro. La pobre mamá está triste. Trabaja y trabaja y trabaja. Nunca duerme. También, el hijo fuma en la casa. El hijo abre la ventana y fuma en la casa. ¡Qué asco!

Un día Hoyal (skateboarding company that sponsors skateboarders, which is what the son does) quiere hablar con el hijo, T.J. Pero Hoyal tiene un problema. Hoyal no habla ingles. T.J. no habla español. Pero, Reina está en la clase de español. Ella puede hablar español y puede hablar inglés. Hoyal habla con Reina.

Le dice: 
-T.J. tiene que practicar mucho.

La mamá mira al hijo y le dice EN INGLÉS: 
- En la opinión de Hoyal, tú tienes que limpiar toda la casa.

T.J. le dice (en inglés): 
-¿Por qué?

La mamá mira a Hoyal y le pregunta: 
-¿Qué más?

T.J. piensa que la mamá le dice ¿por qué?, pero le dice ¿qué más? Hoyal le dice: 
-También tenemos que tomar fotos de T.J.

La mamá mira a T.J. y le dice: 
-¡Tienes que limpiar la casa porque Hoyal quiere tomar fotos EN la casa!

A T.J. le gusta fotos. Quiere ser famoso. Quiere estar en MTVs The Crib. Hoyal le dice: 

-Y también tiene que llevar (wear) la ropa de Hoyal.

La mamá le dice: 

-Y también tienes que lavar (wash) toda la ropa de todas las personas en la casa. Es importante que el representante de Hoyal es muy, muy responsable.

Hoyal le dice: 

-Y finalmente, no puede hacer drogas. 

La mamá sabe que T.J. no hace drogas, pero no le gusta que fuma en la casa. 

 La mamá le dice: 
-También no puedes fumar. Y tienes que recoger (pick up) la caca del perro de afuera (outsider) de la casa. 

T.J. mira a Hoyal y le dice: 
-Okay.

Le dice “okay” porque no habla español. T.J. tiene miedo. Tiene miedo porque no quiere trabajar. No quiere trabajar en Wal-Mart con “R”.  No quiere ver a los “People de Wal-Mart.”  No quiere trabajar en 7-11. Quiere montar a monopatín. Quiere jugar. Quiere dormir. No quiere trabajar. Inmediatamente, T.J. limpia la casa. Limpia toda la casa. Tambíen lava toda la ropa. No le gusta lavar la ropa, pero lava toda la ropa de todas las personas en la familia. También recoge la caca del perro de afuera de la casa. No tiene tiempo para dormir todo el día. No tiene tiempo para fumar. ¡T.J. casi se muere! Limpia y limpia y limpia y casi se muere. Casi se muere porque no puede fumar. Casi se muere porque no puede fumar. Está triste porque no le gusta trabajar, pero limpia y limpia y limpia porque no quiere trabajar en Denny’s.

Reina se sienta y mira la televisión y come palomitas (popcorn) y chocolate. Reina no está triste. Ella está contenta. Está contenta porque no tiene que limpiar la casa. No tiene que lavar la ropa. T.J. limpia la casa y Reina no le ayuda. No le ayuda porque quiere dormir en el sofá y mirar la televisión. T.J. limpia la casa y pasa la aspiradora (passes the aspirator….vacuums).

La mamá le dice: 
-Muévete. No puedo ver la televisión.

Reina toma siestas y mira la televisión y toma cerveza en el sofá. Reina piensa que es la culpa de T.J. Es la culpa de T.J. Es la culpa de T.J. que tiene que limpiar toda la casa y lavar toda la ropa. No es la culpa de Reina. Es la culpa de T.J. porque T.J. no habla español.

(My sub was the Spanish-speaking department chair.  She's competent and smart and can pretty much do anything.  She does not do TPRS, but she's great at PQA and conversation and personalization, so covering for a class is natural for her.  Thus -- the sub plans are not for a non-Spanish speaker.)

This is WILDLY over-planned.   You can start at the beginning or you can pick and choose what you feel like doing and let me know what you didn’t do.  If you would rather do the personalized story (at the end) instead of the book chapters, or if you’d like to have them read on their own, I taught them how to read in groups and they do it well.  So… up to you.  Pick and choose what looks the most fun.  If you decide to bring props to act out chapter 6, all you need is a towel.

If anything is hard to understand in my plans, feel free to skip it and have me do it Wednesday.

Homework over break:

10. Homework.

Over Spring Break read through Chapter 7. Read a little bit each day. Create a playlist on Pandora of Spanish music (Celia Cruz, Juanes, Maná and Enrique Iglesias make a good play list) and watch one hour of televisión in Spanish. A movie in Spanish with subtitles or Plaza Sésamo. I will also send a couple of things by email.

1. CHECK HOMEWORK

Check to see who did homework.  Probably easiest to have everyone write down what they did over the break to stay in Spanish.   This will double as attendance. No idea if they will have done it or not.  They should have read through chapter 7.  I intended to take questions, talk about what happened in the chapters and read some of it together, depending on how much they had all actually read.

2. DISCUSS SPRING BREAK

You can start with a general what did you do over break question.  (Remind them to have their question words out in front of them.)

3. INTRODUCE NEW WORDS

New words: tiene miedo

Camión

Habla primero y piensa después

Culpa (culpability… culprit)

And just for fun…. Tira las llaves al inodoro….. (I couldn’t remember how to say “flush” when Antonio dropped his keys in the toilet)

4. DISCUSS

Discussion possibilities:

¿De qué tienes miedo?

¿Quién habla primero y piensa después?  ¿Quién piensa primero y habla después?  ¿Con quién hablas primero y piensas después?  ¿En cuáles situaciones?

5. READ CHAPTERS 6 and 7 (I’m assuming that they have at least finished Chapter 5 – that’s where the monkey touches the electrical wire while trying to reach the banana that Isabela and Daniel left out and falls out of the tree.  If not, they need to read it first.  You can let them read in groups at their tables.  They do this very quickly.   You might start by asking them what happened in Chapter 5.)

Chapter 6 is set up to act out.  You read, they act. 

Parts: 

1. the Daddy monkey on the ground who waves his arms and jumps up and down and throws papayas

2. Bridget, the lion and tiger vet from Canada.

3. Isabela’s mom. 

4. Daniel.

5. The baby monkey with a towel over it’s head

6. Daniel’s dad, who grabs the baby monkey, throws a towel over it’s head and runs to the truck with it.

When there is dialogue, let them read it, but I usually say it again after so it’s pronounced well if it wasn’t the first time.  Everyone in the class is okay to read dialogue now.

If you read Chapter 7, you can just assign parts and read it – lots of dialogue… have the students read.  You can ask questions.  The crux of the chapter is that in Chapter 5, while alone, Isabela tells herself that it’s all her fault.  Chapter 6,  Isabela speaks first and thinks later… and blames Daniel for what happened to the monkey.  In Chapter 7 she accepts responsibility.

6. PERSONALIZED READING  / HOMEWORK– pass out the Reina story.  They should read for Wednesday.  If they did NOT do the homework over break (music and TV), tell them I won’t know until I get back on Wednesday, so they have two more days to get it done.)

The Reina story is the one we told in class the Wednesday before break. 

NEXT BLOG ENTRY... THE REINA STORY

From: Vanessa McGuire - vanessamcguire79@yahoo.com

This message is for Karen Rowan. Karen, I have recently been reading your blog and my only regret is that I didn't start sooner! I taught high school Spanish for a few years and used TPRS. That was three years ago. Now I am teaching adults through a continuing ed (read: non-credit-just-because-they-want-to-learn) program. These students are unlike my high schoolers in two major ways: age/experience and desire to learn. I only see them once a week for 2 hours and the class is only 12 sessions. There is a book that has been used with this class and because I hadn't taught for this program before, I didn't change the book even though I had no intention of using it. Since I'd never taught this type of student before I didn't want to commit to the curriculum I'd used for high school (a combination of TPRS products) because I had a feeling some of the stories might be too silly for them. Therefore, I've been structuring my lessons/stories around core phrases/high frequency words. My question is how much time do you have with your students each session and each week? You definitely have more class sessions than I do, but I don't know how long your sessions are. Sometimes, I wish I saw them twice a week for an hour each so I could do more stories. They are pretty stretched after just one story, so I usually use the rest of the time for PQA, some conversational practice, reading, and questions they might have about anything. hey get stalled a lot on grammar questions because of previous classes they've had and because of their age (they want to make the connections to English grammar all the time). I am half way done with this class but anticipate teaching Span 1 again in the fall and would like to align my pace a little more closely with yours and see how that works for this class. Thank you very much for all your thorough posts and lesson plans!  Vanessa McGuire

This is my feel-good email of the week!  Thank you!

CLASS SESSIONS

My classes are 1 hour and 15 minutes per session, twice a week, so about the same amount of contact time (and don't subtract anything for getting starting etc. etc.... I don't lose any minutes).  

MATERIALS

Re: materials... I am using the vocabulary from the Isabela books because I already aligned it with the 100-200 highest frequency words in Spanish.  The stories are about the students in the class -- personalized.  I don't have any kind of pre-written stories.  We're just making stuff up based on what happens in class and how people answer questions.   So... it might BE silly... but it's not elephant-talking-to-a-cat funny... it's dropped-my-car-keys-in-the-toilet funny.

THEY GET PRETTY STRETCHED AFTER ONE STORY... ARE YOU READING, TOO?

They get pretty stretched after one story.... so are you doing reading of readers, too?  And are you telling stories about them?  And are they physically involved in the storytelling so they aren't sitting there the whole time?  Those are three ways I keep them from getting too stretched.

SOME IDEAS:

Stop... take a 30 second break... walk ten large paces and then find a partner.... tell him / her what you think should happen next in the story?

If you think that character X should kiss character Y stand up and jump.  If you think she should hit character Y, stomp your feet.

Finish a story and then have them break into groups of 3.  person 1 is character X, person 2 is character Y and the third person is all of the props.  Tell the story again as they act it out.

Grammar questions should be coming up in context and be answered in less than 5 seconds.  If the explanations go longer than that, refer to the explanation you gave them of why their brains are trying to turn this into an intellectual exercise and store information in short term memory.  

Have them draw the story with their non-dominant hand to switch their brains back to acquisition from learning.

I'm SO happy this is helpful to you!  Thank you for the questions!!!

In this blog entry / lesson plan... (last one until after Spring Break, when we will do a lot of the resources from the Congo Teacher's Manual)

1. So… I had a dream.
2. Brainstorming a story
3. But first we also did...
4. Personalized information from previous classes
5. Target vocabulary (meaning what I meant to teach today):
6. Words that were added to target vocab during the story:
7. Words that ended up on the board as structural elements of the story as we went:
8. Here’s how the story turned out. (Lots of dialogue in the story -- trying to build towards output and things that people want to say.)
9. Re-tell
10. Homework.

1. So… I had a dream.

Bear with me now…. So I’m in a large auditorium with a large audience. I’m in the audience and a comedianne is up on stage pulling people up from the audience and making them part of her act for a minute or so. She pulls me up and says something about needing someone to translate something into Spanish for her. She wants to translate something like “hatchet”. I hijack her joke and teach her “lava los platos” which, in the context of the story is going to end up making someone wash the dishes for me instead of whatever she wanted them to do. So I wake up thinking… I need to remember that. That would make a good story. But once I woke up… no matter how much I rubics cubed this plotline, I couldn’t make it be like I dreamed it. Like “Spanish for your Nanny” where the teacher teaches all of the rich, obnoxious women alternate things to say to their nannies. So… I went into class and told them the dream and we spent a great deal of time brainstorming the story together. (I explained the dream in English, but we came up with ideas for how to make it into a story in Spanish.)

2. Brainstorming a story

While we were brainstorming the story, I wrote the vocabulary on the board for Chapter 5 of Isabela captura un congo. The idea for the story came entirely from the class from this brainstorming session and bears some similarity to the concept in my dream. I think they developed it even better. It’s more of an episode of I Love Lucy now.

3. But first we also did...

(This is after asking them what happened in Chapter 4, as that was the homework for today. And also after razzing Antonio for missing class on Monday. Turns out he dropped his car keys down the toilet and flushed them… which would have made it into the story had I been able to remember the word for flush. We also had a lengthy discussion about problems that find us, rather than problems we create. I drew a descriptive photo on the board explaining that my toilet is constantly running and does not have a llave, so can’t shut it off. My utility bill is up $40 a month, but the plumber costs $84.00 just to come look at it. Problemas me encuentran.)

4. Personalized information from previous classes

Okay.. so back to the dream story. Background. We already know that Reina (woman in class) has a teenage / adult son who doesn’t help around the house and has a contract with a skateboarding company. Son sleeps a lot, doesn’t pay rent and Reina does his laundry and cleans the house.

5. Target vocabulary (meaning what I meant to teach today):

Se muere (recycled – we’ve used casi se muere before in Isabela) / está muerto – is dead - new (mort...mortician)

Tiene miedo – has fear

Está triste – is sad (recycled)

Culpa – fault (mea culpa, culpability, culprit -- root word connections)

Piensa - thinks

6. Words that were added to target vocab during the story:

Ayuda – helps

Tiene que – has to (recycled)

7. Words that ended up on the board as structural elements of the story as we went:

Tal vez – maybe
Tiene que practicar – has to practice
No puede hacer drogas – can’t do 
Tiene que tomar fotos – has to take pictures
Tiene que tomar agua – has to drink water
No puede fumar – can’t smoke
Tú tienes que limpiar toda la casa – you have to clean the whole house
Tú tienes que lavar toda la ropa de todas las personas en la casa – you have to wash everyone’s clothes
Tú tienes que recoger (pick up) la caca de perro (de afuera de la casa) – you have to clean up the dog poop

8. Here’s how the story turned out. (Lots of dialogue in the story -- trying to build towards output and things that people want to say.)

Reina tiene un problema. Su hija no ayuda en la casa. Duerme todo el día. No limpia la casa. No lava la ropa. La pobre mama limpia toda la casa. Reina lava toda la ropa. Reina limpia afuera de la casa. Recoge (picks up) toda la caca de perro. La pobre mamá está triste. Trabaja y trabaja y trabaja. Nunca duerme. También, el hijo fuma en la casa. El hijo abre la ventana y fuma en la casa. ¡Qué asco!

Un día Hoyal (skateboarding company that sponsors skateboarders, which is what the son does) quiere hablar con el hijo, T.J. Pero Hoyal tiene un problema. Hoyal no habla ingles. T.J. no habla español. Pero, Reina está en la clase de español. Ella puede hablar español y puede hablar inglés. Hoyal habla con Reina.

Le dice:
-T.J. tiene que practicar mucho.

La mamá mira al hijo y le dice EN INGLÉS:
- En la opinión de Hoyal, tú tienes que limpiar toda la casa.

T.J. le dice (en inglés): 
-¿Por qué?

La mamá mira a Hoyal y le pregunta:
-¿Qué más?

T.J. piensa que la mamá le dice ¿por qué?, pero le dice ¿qué más? Hoyal le dice:
-También tenemos que tomar fotos de T.J.

La mamá mira a T.J. y le dice:
-¡Tienes que limpiar la casa porque Hoyal quiere tomar fotos EN la casa!

A T.J. le gusta fotos. Quiere ser famoso. Quiere estar en MTVs The Crib. Hoyal le dice: 

-Y también tiene que llevar (wear) la ropa de Hoyal.

La mamá le dice: 

-Y también tienes que lavar (wash) toda la ropa de todas las personas en la casa. Es importante que el representate de Hoyal es muy, muy responsable.

Hoyal le dice: 

-Y finalmente, no puede hacer drogas. 

La mamá sabe que T.J. no hace drogas, pero no le gusta que fuma en la casa. 

 La mamá le dice: 
-También no puedes fumar. Y tienes que recoger (pick up) la caca del perro de afuera (outsider) de la casa. 

T.J. mira a Hoyal y le dice: 
-Okay.

Le dice “okay” porque no habla español. T.J. tiene miedo. Tiene miedo porque no quiere trabajar. No quiere trabajar en Wal-Mart. No quiere trabajar en 7-11. Quiere montar a monopatín. Quiere jugar. Quiere dormir. No quiere trabajar. Inmediatamente, T.J. limpia la casa. Limpia toda la casa. Tambíen lava toda la ropa. No le gusta lavar la ropa, pero lava toda la ropa de todas las personas en la familia. También recoge la caca del perro de afuera de la casa. No tiene tiempo para dormir todo el día. No tiene tiempo para fumar. ¡T.J. casi se muere! Limpia y limpia y limpia y casi se muere. Casi se muere porque no puede fumar. Casi se muere porque no puede fumar. Está triste porque no le gusta trabajar, pero limpia y limpia y limpia porque no quiere trabajar en Denny’s.

Reina se sienta y mira la televisión y come palomitas (popcorn) y chocolate. Reina no está triste. Ella está contenta. Está contenta porque no tiene que limpiar la casa. No tiene que lavar la ropa. T.J. limpia la casa y Reina no le ayuda. No le ayuda porque quiere dormir en el sofá y mirar la televisión. T.J. limpia la casa y pasa la aspiradora (passes the aspirator….vaccuums).

La mamá le dice:
-Muévete. No puedo ver la televisión.

Reina toma siestas y mira la televisión y toma cerveza en el sofá. Reina piensa que es la culpa de T.J. Es la culpa de T.J. Es la culpa de T.J. que tiene que limpiar toda la casa y lavar toda la ropa. No es la culpa de Reina. Es la culpa de T.J. porque T.J. no habla español.

9. Re-tell

We re-told the story once together as a class and then in groups they re-told the story – about 5 minutes for re-tell.

10. Homework.

Over Spring Break read through Chapter 7. Read a little bit each day. Create a playlist on Pandora of Spanish music (Celia Cruz, Juanes, Maná and Enrique Iglesias make a good play list) and watch one hour of televisión in Spanish. A movie in Spanish with subtitles or Plaza Sésamo. I will also send a couple of things by email.

Monday, March 12, 2012

1.     Discussion – what did you do this weekend?

¿Qué hiciste?

Yo trabajé                        I worked                                    trabajo

Yo limpié                        I cleaned                                    limpio

Yo fui                                    I went                                                voy

Yo tomé                        I drank                                    tomo

Yo bailé                        I danced                                    bailo

Yo no pagué                          I did not pay                                    no pago

Yo mire                        I looked / watched (a movie)            miro           

Yo vi                                    I saw                                                veo

I explained what I had done over the weekend and each student contributed what they had done.  We spent some time talking about one student who cleaned her house and joked that her 18 year-old son should be doing the cleaning instead.  This evolved into a longer conversation about what it is he is doing instead of cleaning the house.

Some pop-up grammar about the difference between preterite and present (I am not teaching preterite -- but we need it to talk about what 

2.  We went over the textbook chapter by chapter.  At this point in the semester, about half way through, and about 17 hours of contact time in, we have covered significantly more than what is required in the class, but not in order.  Students are familiar with vocabulary in each chapter through chapters 9 out of 10.  Chapter 5, for example, contained a great deal of vocabulary we had already done.   Students will scan the book this week to get a feel for what we already know… what’s in the glossary… what other reference resources are in the book.  They are required to “study” only the map of Latin America.

2.     We went back to the story from Wednesday about the people of Wal-Mart.

I wrote this on the board:

  ….not all at the same time.  I added questions to re-build the story and they answered them.   I also asked “what else don’t we know?” and they suggested new  questions.

 We also added some cognate adjectives to the ¿Cómo es? list and learned that her husband is very romantic and sentimental.

activo, ambicioso, arrogante, atractivo, competente, creativo, discreto, estudioso, excelente, extrovertido, flexible, generoso

honesto, idealista, increíble. interesante, maduro, materialista, nervioso, optimista, paciente / impaciente, pesimista, reservado

responsable, irresponsable, romántico, sentimental, serio, sociable, terrible. tímido, tranquilo

¿Cómo es L?  The class described L under ¿Cómo es?

These were their contributions to the first question.  It went like this:

¿Cómo es L?  ¿de qué color es su pelo? ¿De qué color son sus ojos?  Students answered… one asked, ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?  ¿Cuántos años tienes? ¿Qué le gusta?  A ella le gusta zapatos.  Es adicta a zapatos.    Most answers were provided by her.  Other students provided much information. 

As we added details we reminded ourselves of the story and the details of the story.  Homework:  write the story in no more than 5 minutes.  Due Monday. 

This was non-stop English-free comprehensible input.  I asked questions and they added details from Monday’s story. 

In the story as it was told in class last Monday, Franco’s wife comes into Wal-Mart wearing a SuperMan shirt and Superman cape (es normal en Wal-Mart) and sees L taking pictures of her husband.   Franco is now posing as though he’s a super model while also practicing yoga and eating a Big Mac.   L is singing to him…. She is singing…. She is singing… what is she singing to him?

They break into spontaneous song… not kidding…. We change and correct their verbs a bit and what comes out is

Eres guapo, eres muy, muy guapo.  Tienes ojos…. Cafés, y pelo castaño….  (If this doesn’t make sense go to www.SenorWooly.com and watch the Soy Guapo music video.)

 Franco gives his wife a big plastic diamond ring that he bought her at Wal-Mart.  She looks menacingly at L… who was just singing to and taking pictures of her husband and she says….

“¿Quiere Usted un bolsa?”

I would write the story…. But since it’s their homework… and they read this blog….

I’ll start Congo on Wednesday and  possibly write the story later this week.  

Monday, March 5

1. We listed to the audio of Chapter 10 of Isabela.

2. Slide show of pictures from Guanajuato (what will later make up parts of the Teacher’s Manual for Isabela).  Asked students to say things about the drawings and pictures based on what they had read.

3.  Words on board today

compra

trabaja

caja (cashier station)

un año

se ríen

invierno

verano

pijamas

4.  What we learned.  L (not her real name) works at Wal-mart.  She has two daughters.  Her husband of 2 months has 4 children. Together they have 6.  The big wedding is still coming up.  She works 9 hours per day, but only 36 hours per week.  We discussed the People of Wal-Mart, unsuspecting, poorly dressed shoppers who have their pictures taken in Wal-Marts and find them posted on a website.  We learned that many students go to Wal-Mart in their pajamas, including Franco, who  once went in to grab a bottle of water on his way to a fishing trip.  He was not wearing a shirt or shoes. 

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

(This class was heavy on props... my secret?  November 1st at the Halloween Store when everything is half price.  I also occasionally find things throughout the year by just keeping my eye out.  For example, an X-large size Superman T-shirt I bought for $3.00.  All clothing should be super-sized because it's going over other clothes.)

1.     Students who had finished Isabela got stickers based on the best quote of a few days ago. 

“We finished a whole book!  (big smile)  I used to teach Kindergarten.  I feel like I need…. a sticker.”

Generally, I do not reward reading.  (Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards), but I bought kitten and puppy stickers which allowed me to give out stickers while giving lots of comprehensible input (that was why I didn’t select the smiley face or star stickers.  Kittens and puppies were more appropriate to what I had been teaching.)  I passed them out asking students if they wanted kitten or puppy stickers, which one and where they wanted them… on their hands, heads or in their book.

2.     I passed out index cards and asked students to answer this question:

If you were trapped in an elevator for 25 hours with any celebrity, who would you choose?  Don’t like that question?  You’re on a deserted island with no immediate needs – plenty of water, etc. – and you are stranded for 24 hours before being rescued with any celebrity.  Who is it?  (I asked in English… it took about 30 seconds.)

Each one wrote down their favorite celebrity and then passed in the cards.  (I will use the rest of the cards in later stories.  This ENTIRE story was in Spanish, but I have summarized in English in places for teachers who don't teach Spanish. )

)

I started the story….

Un día…. L está trabajando…

¿Dónde está trabajando?

¿En cuál Walmart?  ¿En Missouri?  (Student says Hawaii).  No, no está trabajando en Wal-Mart en Hawaii.  ¿Dónde trabaja?  ¿Está trabajando en el Wal-Mart en la calle 8?  (Student says on Powers.)  Sí, L trabaja en el Wal-Mart en Powers.

¿Qué hace L?  ¿Por cuántas horas trabaja? ¿Qué quiere comprar L en Wal-Mart?  ¿Quiere comprar zapatos?  (Students say no… Los zapatos son feos.) 

Un día… ¿quién entra en Wal-Mart? )I pick up a card and select one student’s answer… Natalie Portman. 

I grabbed props and dressed her up like a Person of Wal-Mart.  By asking questions we established that she had come to buy new shoes (not used shoes).  She took them to L, the cashier who did NOT say, “¿Por qué quieres comprar zapatos feos de Wal-Mart?” and instead said, “¿Quiere Usted una bolsa?”

However, L secretly takes pictures of Natalie Portman and posts them on People of Wal-Mart.  (Saca fotos en secreto.)

I continued to ask questions about the next person who walked into Wal-Mart – I picked up another card --- Lady Gaga –  I handed a boa to the student who had written Lady Gaga on the card.   Lady Gaga wants to buy…. Meat… clothes made of meat, it turns out.

L secretly takes pictures of Lady Gaga and posts them on People of Wal-Mart.com

When she checks out L does not say, “¡¡¡¿¿¿¿You’re buying meat clothes????!!!!”  She says, “¿Quiere Usted…. 5 bolsas?”

(L… who actually works at Wal-Mart, had asked how to say things like, would you like a bag?)

The last People of Wal-Mart customer is, of course, Franco, who arrives without a shirt or shoes.  I posted a picture on the board of Antonio Banderas shirtless and said it was Franco.  Franco dressed in the muscles.

L loses all professionalism.  Franco is there to buy a Big Mac from the McDonald’s inside of Wal-Mart.  She takes pictures because she wants to take pictures of his muscles (Franco is wearing the muscles prop).  She wants to take pictures of his feet.  She wants to take pictures of his stomach muscles.

Franco notices her taking pictures and how does he react?  The class says he starts to pose like a model.  He is eating a Big Mac and flexing.

But his wife walks in.  I gave her the Superman shirt and Superman cape props.  (Es normal en Wal-Mart.)

She says, “¿Qué haces?” (What are you doing?)  He whips out a huge plastic diamond ring and says he’s buying her a big ring… from Wal-Mart!”  The wife looks at L and L says, “¿Quiere Usted una bolsa?”

All established facts in the story were arrived at through questions.

Target vocab for review and new:

Quiere comprar

Está triste

Canta

Le dice:

El dedo

Está trabajando

Le gusta

Other words that came up in class:

Ya no

Camina

Zapatos

Más o menos

Experta

Barato / tacaño

Corbata

Ropa de carne

Yo compro un diamante grande para ti.

Quiere Usted una bolsa.

Usados

Nuevos

Imitación

No me siento bien

Ciudad

Ilegal / legal

When we finished the story we had time left for the reading.  First we read the reading and I asked questions. 

Julie y el Doctor Mc Dreamy

Patrick Dempsey tiene un problema. Un día Patrick va a ABC. 

Una mujer mira a Patrick.  La mujer se llama Julie.  Patrick mira a Julie.  Julie mira a Patrick románticamente. Julie quiere un favor. Julie quiere tocar sus músculos enormes.  Julie mira los  enormes músculos.  Julie quiere tocarlos.  Julie corre a Patrick.  Julie mira románticamente a Patrick. 

Julie le dice, -Quiero tocar tus enormes músculos  –

Patrick le dice, - no.

Julie está triste.  Julie le dice, - Yo quiero tocar tu  músculo enorme , por favor. –

Patrick levanta las manos y le dice, - No. 

Julie no quiere tocar la mano de Patrick.  Julie no quiere tocar el ojo de Patrick.  Julie no quiere tocar el dedo de Patrick.  Julie no quiere tocar el pelo perfecto de Patrick. Julie quiere tocar los músculos enormes del actor. (Julie quiere tocar la boca de Patrick, pero es otro cuento.)

Patrick llama a la policía.  Patrick habla con un policía.  El policía  la mira a Julie.  Julie está triste.  Julie llora.  Patrick se  ríe. Julie no es normal.

EL FIN

(This story is on the Fluency Fast website inside of Free Resources and then Spanish.  There are several more stories like this in the Beginning Spanish curriculum.  You can see that in class, though, I did not teach quiere tocar, I taught quiere sacar fotos, so that it wouldn’t be… you know… TOO weird.)

Then they broke into pairs and one of them played the role of Patrick Demsey and the other played the role of Julie.  They acted out the story as I told it.

On Monday we will take the class story from Wednesday and turn it into a reading.  I can't wait to write this story.  It has been lots of fun to develop.  I'll post it here when I finish writing it.

Class 12, Monday, February 27, 2012

Quote of the day…. As we finished Isabela.

“We finished a whole book!  (big smile)  I used to teach Kindergarten.  I feel like I need…. a sticker.”

If you missed the last class, go to www.fluencyfast.com/isabela and look at the pictures I showed in class last Wednesday.  

Teachers... please ask questions if there are things you want me to explain!

All vocabulary written on board only in Spanish. 

Tell me which ones you don’t know --- those are the ones you try to get into today’s story because you haven’t had enough repetitions yet, so I’ll recycle more today.

No new vocabulary today

All vocab:

Quiere ser

Compra

Camina

Piensa

Come

Tiene

Se llama

Habla por teléfono

Grita

Se levanta

Se sienta

Agarra

Le dice:

Trabaja

Escucha

Está cansado

Está contento

Está triste

Puede comprar

Puede hacer ejercicio

Puede tocar

Puede cantar

Quiere matar

Quiere correr

Dibuja

Toca la guitarra

Ve

Mira

Pone

Canta

Va

Va a + inf.

Viaja

Juega

Se ríe

Llora

Lee

Fuma

Vive

Le da

Es divertido

Es aburrido

Abre la puerta

La cabeza,

El pelo

La mano

La lengua

El ojo

El ombligo

El pie

LA BOCA (I forgot this one… adding to the list)

+ Question words:

¿Quién?

¿Qué?

¿Dónde?

¿Cuándo?

¿Cuál?

¿Cómo?

¿Cuánto? ¿Cuántos?

¿Por qué?

I did not add any connecting words to the list… they are picked up in context entirely.  Y…con…para…

Words they asked to review:  (this is what I would call non-sticky --- it has not been acquired yet.  That would be because they haven’t been exposed to the vocab or structures enough yet.)

Ve, Pone, Escucha, abre la puerta,  quiere matar, piensa, tengo, está cansado, está triste,

Cognates I added (in an effort not to add new words) – imagina, emergencia, terapía, horas, cortar

Words I used or added that weren’t on the first list: cerveza, tomar, besar,

Asked a story in class, pointed to the words on the wall, tried to use lots of the more difficult vocabulary.  When we finished the basic structure of the story, I re-told it and they added more details and students played the roles (using props).  (Silly string served as the vomit; chile spiced mango from Trader Joe’s was the mango with chile)

Freewrite:

Write three of the words you feel like you still don’t know at the top of the page… you can look at the vocab list on the board while you write… write the story we just created and count the words.

Reading:

We quickly read Chapter 9 together.  Unknown words, dulce and pregunta.

Homework for next class:

Read the last chapter of Isabela.  Come prepared to discuss. 

Study map of Latin America in Chapter 3 or on-line.  I will email blank map.  Know what countries are considered Central America and what countries are considered South America.  Study for test.  NOT next week. 

Student mentioned Che Guevera and The Motorcycle Diaries.

Next week we will start Isabela captura un congo together in class. (Monday, March 5.)

Quiz for Wednesday will have 10 vocabulary words I am fairly confident are “sticky,”   They will translate into English.   Also… several questions using question words.  For example,

¿Cómo se llama la hija de Franco?

¿Cómo se llama el ex-novio de Carolina?  (Interesting information… the real “Carolina” broke up with first one and now both of the boyfriends.  She blames the class for pointing out their flaws.)

¿Por cuántas horas toma Franco en el bar?

¿Cómo se llama el bar?

¿Quién trabaja en el bar?

Details about the people in this room, I reminded them, are more important than the Spanish.

It’s also important not to sound like an idiot in your real life, which is why you need to know the geography of Latin America.   Costa Rica?  Not an island.  But you’d be surprised how many educated people in the U.S. think it is.  Mexico?  Part of North America.  People think we’re smart based on whether or not we talk when we don’t know what we’re talking about.  

Class story about Franco is in the previous blog.

Ironically… Franco was home sick today. =(