This group of 7th graders is, without doubt, one of the most talented group of kids that I have ever had the privilege to teach! And their improvisational skills are downright amazing. One of the things that I have implemented this year is conversation cue cards that are passed out to each student at the beginning of class. The students then take turns coming to the front of the class and speaking in Spanish on the theme they were given. That is much harder than it sounds! I have been so impressed by their courage and by their proficiency.
As if extemporaneous speaking in Spanish weren't enough, they have been practicing their singing and songwriting skills by composing their own songs for irregular verbs and performing them in front of the class! Sadly, my videography skills are not nearly as good as their performances, and I can't post the videos of their compositions, but it has been incredibly entertaining to watch them sing and dance.
Finally, we have been practicing our own version of DEAR (Drop Everything And Read). Once a week, all of our middle school students take about 10 minutes to read in Spanish. We practice gisting--getting the gist of what is going on, even without knowing every single word--but we also stop every now and then to find a key word and put it on a sticky note for our door. It is fun to read the notes and guess which book a particular word came from (Clifford, el gran perro colorado is one favorite). What is even better is seeing how all of this translates into proficiency in real life and higher test scores!
