Hora de leer

We are celebrating our library/book fair week, and having so much fun!  One of the best parts is DEAR--Drop Everything And Read.  This afternoon my fourth graders were in the middle of class when we had to DEAR.  To my delight, several chose books in Spanish!  Although they are not yet at the level of fluency to read entire books in Spanish, we have several bilingual books that they can use to check comprehension, and if it is a translation of a story they already know in English they can often use that knowledge to help them understand new words.  I am especially grateful to our book fair volunteers who help make sure that we have Spanish titles available, to the generous parents and students who have donated for our class, and to Mrs. Scalet and others who have been so gracious to make sure that our students have so many resources in Spanish.  <3  

Ariana and Emileigh keep saying, "¡Qué chulo!" at the cute puppies.

Sam found a cozy nook to hide out in.

Austin is absorbed in his book.

The Wimpy Kids books are favorites in both languages.

Spanish Prayers

One of my favorite things about All Saints is that it is truly a Catholic school.   Although we are always in the presence of God, we deliberately take time throughout the school day to turn our hearts and attention to Him.  Not only do our children learn the prayers in English, but even before they come into third grade Spanish, they have learned many prayers in Spanish, too.

Why does this matter?  Well, in terms of faith. I believe that this opens our hearts and creates a beautiful rhythm to our days, bringing peace and virtue.  But even if you are not a Catholic family, I think that there are some wonderful blessings from a Spanish language standpoint to this practice.

First, it introduces vocabulary and grammar structures in an authentic way.  In particular, the students see and hear Spanish outside of a textbook.  There are new words, and patterns of words, that enrich their vocabulary.  Always, always, we find examples of the grammar concepts that we are reviewing, from adjectives to past participles to irregular verbs.

Additionally, it allows the students to see the progression and evolution of language, noting older examples of Spanish in some prayers, and how others have been slightly modernized.

One of the biggest pitfalls for elementary Spanish classes is that so often students hear isolated nouns instead of rich, flowing sentences.  As we practice the prayers and creeds in Spanish, our students experience the fluency of complete and complex thoughts being expressed in beautiful words.  They become accustomed to intonation patterns and internalize correct pronunciation.  

I want the prayers to be a source of peace for our students, not anxiety.  For the most part, they do not learn them as a test or assignment.  It is simply how we open our class.  Even our third graders have mostly memorized the Apostles' Creed in Spanish this way!

The following are some of the prayers we have learned:

The Sign of the Cross
Our Father
Mary, Queen of All Saints
Hail Mary
The Angelus
The Apostles' Creed

Although not all of the students know all of these yet, most of them are very familiar with these prayers and can easily pray along with the class.  As we talk about the meanings of each of the words, we find that we are truly learning them by heart.  It is not vain repetition, but more like breathing:  a regular and life-giving part of our day.

Round Up

We have had quite a time in Spanish the last few weeks!  There is so much going on this time of year with field trips, testing, (and unfortunately sickness), but we have been busy in Spanish.  The 7th and 8th graders participated in the National Spanish Exam.  I am so impressed by the effort that they have put into studying this year.  We will not have the official results of the NSE until May, but I expect some great scores.

Our 6th graders have been learning about e to ie stem-changing verbs.  These are a special group of irregular verbs in the present tense that follow a pattern of spelling changes.  They made boot posters to remember which conjugations show the stem-change (the ones inside the boot) and which ones follow the normal pattern (those outside the boot).  

Our 5th graders are learning about telling time this week.  Recently we finished a section on adjective agreement and they each wrote down the qualities that they admired in their classmates.  I am still working on getting all of those printed up and laminated, but reading all of the kind things that they expressed about each other made my whole day better.  

The 3rd and 4th grade students have been going over animal vocabulary.  I love it that they aren't content to learn the basics like cat, dog, bird.  We went over everything from anteaters to opossums to zebras!  As we continue this week, they are making masks of an animal, and will come to the front of the class, identify their animal in Spanish, and talk about care for creation and how we can help to care for animals and our environment. 

That is just a quick round up of some of the things we have been up to.   The school year is flying by, but I am so pleased by the things our students are learning, and so impressed by the people that they are becoming.

Fashion Week--3M

We have been continuing our practice with adjective agreement, the articles and the clothing vocabulary.  This week our third and fourth graders did a desfile de moda (fashion show) for us.  While we normally have some great-looking uniforms, it does tend to limit the variety for a fashion show.  Today several of our kids were wearing the Jump Rope for Heart styles.  I think they are all an incredibly cute group of kids!

                   

 

Hear It, See It, Say It, Wear It

When you were a baby, you learned the meaning of words in several ways: you heard the word "shoes" as your parents helped you get dressed.  You saw the shoes, your parents helped you put them on your feet.  Soon you were able to put concepts together: the brown shoes, the blue jacket, the green shirt.

Our process in Spanish has been similar.  Last semester, our third and fourth graders learned the colors and how to make nouns and adjectives plural.  This semester we have been learning the four definite articles and the rules of gender and number agreement, along with clothing vocabulary.

In our class that looks like a lot of hearing the words, seeing the words, saying the words and, in this case, wearing them.  We sing a song at the beginning of class with all of the clothing words, and sometimes another song to help us remember the colors.  We write charts of all the definite articles, and which endings for the Spanish words match each ones.

Today, I called out complete sentences in Spanish and the children drew pictures to illustrate them. If I said, "La blusa es morada," they would draw a purple blouse.  If I called out, "Los calcetines son amarillos," they would color a pair of yellow socks.  Although we haven't formally covered changing the endings of color words to match the noun for gender and number, several of them noticed that I was doing that and were able to figure out the reason why! (And by the way, these kids must rock at Pictionary, because they had the clothing drawn and colored before I could even repeat the sentence).

Of course, no unit on clothing is complete without some wild races to see who can put on the item of clothing first.  Do you have any idea how loud the giggles get when you have twenty students laughing their heads off?  It's a beautiful sound in any language.  :)

Work and Play-8th Graders

The first few days after we came back from our Christmas break were gray and dismal, weather-wise.   Class-wise, we were starting to feel the doldrums, too.  We had worked hard on some tough grammar concepts, slogging through rules and worksheets, and though the students put great effort into it and didn't complain, the spark wasn't quite there.

I had just finished grading some leyendas misteriosas that our eighth grade class had written to contrast the preterite and imperfect and I was amazed at their competence and creativity.  On the spur of the moment, we switched up the lesson plan and decided to have them write and perform a mini-play for the Spanish kindergarten class.

We had learned the Apostles' Creed in Spanish last semester and discussed the differences in Spanish and English.  In Spanish, it reads that Jesus, "fue concebido por obra y gracias del Espíritu Santo" (was conceived by the work and grace of the Holy Spirit).  We had talked about differences in the words trabajo and obra in Spanish, and that the word obra could mean many things, from a deed or action to a work of art or a play.  

It takes much, much more effort to produce language than to merely understand it.  Reading Spanish is comparatively easy.  Writing it isn't, especially when you are talking about a five minute play completely in Spanish.  But the students embraced the challenge and poured themselves into it.  They formed small groups, wrote their own stories and scripts, and designed their own costumes and props.   As we revised the scripts, we reviewed ser vs estar, the preterite vs imperfect, direct vs indirect object pronouns, vocabulary and more, all in a context that mattered because they wrote it.  Next week, we will be performing for the little ones.

As you can see, their stories are full of princesses, peril and picos (beaks)!   If we have even half as much fun performing them as we have had preparing them, it will be a treat indeed.  It is a good class when work and play mean the same thing.

Back in the Groove

The Christmas break was a wonderful time to relax and enjoy ourselves.  Now we are back in the groove of classes and new material.

Our third, fourth and fifth graders have been going over our vocab from the first semester and identifying the masculine and feminine nouns.  They learned the rules for plural forms last semester.  This week we have been putting it all together with the definite and indefinite articles.

Our sixth grade students have been working on the possessive adjectives and the comparatives.  Tomorrow they are going to pair up with our second grade buddies to help them memorize the blessing  before meals in Spanish.  We are all looking forward to celebrating with an (appropriately blessed) ice cream party once they all have it down!

Our seventh grade students have been going over travel vocab and the reflexive verbs.  Today we combined those with the direct object pronouns.  Students closed their eyes, fished around in the suitcase, chose an item and then identified in Spanish, and told what they use it for using the reflexive verbs.

The eighth grade class has been using the preterite and imperfect to create their own leyendas.  It has been so much fun reading their stories that I think we might need to have a play so that the entire class can enjoy their creative tales! 

One of the sentences in the homework with the comparative forms had the students choose whether work was more fun than play or less fun than play.  Your children make sure that for me the answer is always that work is fun!

Oral Exams

For some people, the fear of public speaking is worse than death.  Imagine having a spoken exam in  another language!  That is exactly what our 3rd through 8th graders have been doing this week, and they passed with flying colors.

Every semester I have college students tell me that they studied Spanish in high school, but that they couldn't actually speak it if their lives depended on it.  That is such a tragic waste of time!  Many universities and colleges are moving to oral proficiency exams, with good reason.  Most of the time when you use Spanish outside of the classroom, you will be speaking it.

For our speaking tests, the students came out in the hall one by one, and I asked them a series of questions in Spanish.  They did not know in advance what questions I would be asking, and there was no paper to look at.  They were graded on their comprehension of the question, grammar and pronunciation. Although it was brief, it was excellent practice with "real life" Spanish.

It is fascinating to see how different learning styles shine with different forms of assessment.  Some of the students who struggle more with the written exams excelled at speaking Spanish.   I love seeing our students developing communicative competence!

National Spanish Exam ~ 7th and 8th Grade

I am so excited to announce that for the first time ever, All Saints students will be taking the National Spanish Exam!  The NSE is the most widely used set of Spanish proficiency tests in the US, with more than 150,000 middle school and high school students participating in 2014 alone.

The test measures listening comprehension skills, reading comprehension skills, vocabulary and grammar according to national standards for Spanish language learners.  There are several different categories for each level, so that students who have more exposure to Spanish (for example, if Spanish is spoken at home) are ranked against their peers instead of with those who are learning it in a typical school setting.  Because students at All Saints have so much Spanish in elementary grades, the exam will classify them as OE (having outside experience).

I am preparing a study guide for the students who will be taking the exam that will include much of the vocabulary and brief explanations of the grammar that will be covered.  To give you an idea of how rigorous the exam is, I still have two-thirds of the grammar standards left to cover and I am already at 29 pages and nearly 3,000 words!

I won't lie--the exam is hard.  Most of the students who are taking it are in high school (there are plenty of sophomores and juniors taking the level 1).  Additionally, many schools only allow their top students to take it (often an A average is required for eligibility).  Finally, our students will be competing in the same group as those who have Spanish spoken at home.  An "average" score on this exam is actually far higher than an average Spanish student would be capable of achieving.  But having worked with the students at All Saints this last semester, I am convinced that they will excel.

The exam will be taken in the spring, probably in late March.  Once our time grows closer, I will be looking for some parents to help proctor the exam.  In the meantime, if you would like to practice with previous exams or use some games and links to help practice, they are available here: http://www.nationalspanishexam.org/index.php/exam-preparation/online-practice-exercises  The link offers many types of practice, including listening comprehension and reading comprehension exercises.

I am excited about all that our students have learned, and look forward to seeing that reflected in this exam.

A Million Ways to Learn

Having taught for fifteen years in a variety of settings has confirmed what any parent already knows: children don't always learn things the same way, and what works for some may not be effective for others.

St. Paul wrote, " I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some."  As a teacher, my challenge is to teach in all possible ways so that I might reach my students.  It will always be an area of growth, but here are some of the many ways we learned this week:

Listening:
As part of our Advent, we have been listening to different Spanish versions of "O Come, Emmanuel" each day.  We have heard renditions from several different countries and noted the differences in musical instruments and translations from each region.  One of our favorites was from South America, recorded for the Católicos de hoy program (Catholics Today).

Every week we practice with the ¡Avancemos! audio CDs, and I encourage students to use the links in the right side bar of the blog, as well.  This gives students exposure to a variety of accents and speakers using the vocabulary and grammar structures we are covering in class.

I conduct about 25% of the class in Spanish.  While I never want to frustrate the students, I do want to give them exposure to the sounds, rhythms and intonation patterns of a native speaker.  Usually I will say things in Spanish first, and then repeat it in English.  You can see their confidence grow as they understand what I say the first time.

The elementary classes are practicing with a dictado (dictation) this week, and it is exciting to see their competence and confidence increase!

Seeing: 
Besides reading, we love to use the Promethean board to find images of topics we are studying.

Popocatépetl and Ixtaccíhuatl

 Our 8th graders have been learning about Popocatépetl and Ixtaccíhuatl, and we found several images of those mountains that illustrate the legends associated with them.  This morning we looked at some of the chocolate in Oaxaca, and how it is mixed with spices and nuts.

Oaxacan chocolate ready to be ground

Each chapter in our ¡Avancemos! textbooks includes several DVD clips with vocabulary, cultural info and story-lines that provide a fun way to reinforce what we are learning.

Movement:
Whether it is dancing along to a song in Spanish or playing games, we try to find plenty of opportunities to move around in class.  One of our favorite things to do is to play a game of catch with a couple of very soft and fuzzy balls.  The student who catches the squooshy has to conjugate a verb or give the correct Spanish response before throwing it to someone else.  Since you never know who will get it next, it keeps us on our toes!

Señor Suave and Señor Scushi

Taste: 

Although we don't get to do this one quite as often, every one of my classes agrees that when it comes to learning about the foods and drinks of different Spanish-speaking countries, it isn't enough to read and talk about them.  We have to actually try them.  During our Country-in-a-Bag presentations, the students tried authentic tamales, tostones, papas, limonadas, and many other recipes for each of the countries that we presented.  After learning about the chocolate in Oaxaca, we all had a cup of real Mexican chocolate.  

These activities are more than fun, they are the key to engaging all kind of learners.  While we do plenty of traditional pencil and paper work, too, we know that sitting still and writing is not the only way to learn.  Recognizing that each student is unique and helping to capture their imaginations is part of why I love teaching--my students make sure that I never get bored!