Oral Quizzes--Tips for Success

The most disappointing thing to hear in my college classes is that students have already studied Spanish for years, but couldn't speak it if their lives depended on it.  What a waste of their time! Along with speaking Spanish regularly in our classroom, we also assess our students' speaking proficiency with oral quizzes and oral sections on every chapter exam.

It doesn't have to be scary.  Honest.  There are simple things that you can do to make sure that you do well:

1. Slow down and breathe.  When you get nervous, you naturally start to speak faster.  Your perception of time becomes distorted, and you feel as though you are taking longer than you really are.  Stop and take a deep breath.  Think through your answer, and say it clearly without rushing.

2. Stick with what you know.  It is tempting to want to use words and expressions that you haven't learned yet.  I am testing you for the things we have covered, not material that you haven't seen yet.  Even if it doesn't include all of the details you want to share, use the vocabulary and grammar that we have been going over in class.

3. If you get stuck, say it another way.  Everyone has moments where the word is on the tip of your tongues and you can't find it.  Nearly always, there is a different way to communicate the same idea or elicit the same information.  If you are talking about the near future and can't remember how to use ir + a + infinitive, just use the present tense.  If you can't remember a vocabulary word, think of a more general term.

4. If you make a mistake, fix it and go on.  Regardless of the language, most of us can think of times we wished we could take back a word as soon as it left our lips.  You can.  If you realize that you meant to use a different word, let me know.  If you correct yourself, I won't have to.  However, don't get caught second-guessing yourself.  Unless you are sure, just keep going.  You may have been right to begin with, or I might not notice a mistake if you keep talking and the rest of what you say is right.  :)

5. Practice, practice, practice.  The more you speak, the more comfortable you will be.  Get used to hearing native speakers, and your pronunciation skills will improve.  Use Spanish every chance you get, and it will show in your confidence and skill!

Love Notes and Scavenger Hunts

One of my favorite things about our school is the sense of community and the way that students from different grades look out for each other.  It doesn't always work out that our Spanish concepts match up, but this week my 6th grade students are learning estar with prepositions, and the 7th graders are reviewing estar as they work on the differences between the verbs ser and estar.

This morning, my 6th graders left a surprise for the 7th grade class.  They took sticky notes and wrote sentences in Spanish using estar and the prepositions to express where the note would be, and then stuck it around the room. So it might read something like, "El papel está debajo del escritorio." Or, "El papel está al lado del reloj."

 

Our 7th grade class will go on a little note hunt, sort of like an easter-egg hunt, to see how many they can find, and will then read them to the class. :)

We have been a bit note-card happy lately, in more ways than one.  As a way to build our friendships, we have been taking note cards and each class period everyone writes a card for our student of the day.  They may mention things that they like or admire, or a word, they can draw a picture or write a favorite memory--just something to build up their friends.  I read through all of them (easily one of the best parts of my day!) and then give them to the student to keep.  The deep thoughtfulness that goes into some of these cards amazes me, and the look on the students' faces as they read through their cards is priceless.  Often siblings will keep track of when it will be their brother or sister's turn, and ask if they can slip a card in.  It is absolutely precious.  Looking for sticky notes is a fun way to practice Spanish, but looking for the best in each other is even better.

First Exam - 5th Grade

¡Hola!  Our fifth grade class will be taking their first exam next week, and I know that it can be a bit nerve-wracking to prepare for the first test.  To help reduce any fears, I wanted to give a breakdown of what will be on the test and what they need to study:

Our goals for the capítulo preliminar are that the students will have successfully learned to:

• Greet people and say goodbye
• Introduce themselves and others
• Ask and say how to spell names
• Say where they are from
• Exchange phone numbers
• Say what day of the week it is
• Describe the weather
• Respond to classroom instructions

The exam will test all four skills ~ listening comprehension, reading, writing and speaking.  There will be a listening section at the beginning of the exam with our audio program.  I will play through it twice. Next is a vocabulary section where students will be writing sentences, completing a cloze passage (filling in the blanks of a dialogue), choosing expressions that fit a situation, describing weather, and giving class instructions.  There is a true/false and short answer reading section. That is followed by a speaking section.  For the speaking part of the exam, students will go out in the hall individually and respond to basic questions in Spanish. Finally, there is a writing section of five sentences based on prompts. 

As you can see, the exam is very thorough.  We usually break up the exams into sections over two class periods so that the students will not be rushed. 

In order to be prepared for the exam, it is important that the students know their vocabulary list well, and that they are able to spell the words correctly.  Accent marks do count.  

We have covered quite a bit of ground with this first unit.  I always want to remind the students that even the best designed tests can only show aspects of what they have learned.  If they study and miss something, they have not failed: it has just shown us both an area where they need more practice.  We have had several quizzes at this point, and I feel confident that they will be able to do well on this test. I hope that as they realize how much they are able to communicate, that they will be proud of the effort that they have put into the course and excited about their progress.  As always, feel free to email me at any time!

¡Buena suerte! 

7th Grade Improv

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!

De colores and Caring for Beauty

I just wanted to share a quick note about a conversation in our classes yesterday.  One of the things that we are incorporating this year is becoming familiar with traditional songs in Spanish.  We listened to "De colores," a well-known song that talks about love and the beauty of nature, and discussed the lyrics.  I was amazed by the insightful comments!



The students talked about the way that the colors God uses to paint creation make it beautiful and exciting.  They make us feel happy!  From there, the conversation went to our responsibility to care for creation and keep it beautiful.  Instead of being selfish, we need to think of what is best for everyone.

What happened next surprised and delighted me.
The students made the connection that just as God has made creation lovely and we should take care of it, each person who is created in the image of God is also beautiful, and we have a responsibility to help nurture and protect that beauty in the way that we treat each other.  

What gorgeous hearts these children have!

Bienvenidos ~ Confidence, Love and Mercy

¡Hola y bienvenidos al nuevo año escolar!  Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year!  I am so, so excited about the opportunity to help the students at All Saints to succeed in Spanish.

In preparation for this year, there have been two themes that are directing some of our goals.  The first is our school theme, "Be merciful, as your Father is merciful," ~ Mt. 6:36.

The second theme is closely tied to that, and is a quote from my saint, Don Bosco. "Without confidence and love, there can be no true education."

This applies in so many ways.  I want our class to be a place of safety and joy, so that our students are confident that they are loved.  This will happen as we learn together to show mercy to all--teachers to students, students to each other, and parents and students to teachers ;).

We will be speaking a lot of Spanish this year, and that requires courage, willingness to make mistakes, and showing mercy to ourselves and our classmates.  It is hard to speak up in any language, let alone one that you are just learning.  As they see their skills grow, I hope that their confidence in their ability and their delight in Spanish will increase, as well.

I want our students to grow in confidence and love for themselves, for others, and most of all, their trust and love for their heavenly Father.  If they do, their education will truly be worth learning.

Passing it On

One of the best things about All Saints is the way that older students and younger ones interact together frequently.  Nearly every day, I see pre-K, kindergarten or first graders hugging or high-fiving our middle schoolers, and often they pair up with buddies for special activities.  This was reflected in the final project for my 8th grade class.  They decided to make Spanish videos for the younger students here, especially the 5th graders.

This 8th grade class amazes me with their initiative and maturity.  They came up with everything on their own--designed their own themes, wrote their own scripts, did all of their own filming and editing.  And they did it in less than a week! This was their project from start to finish, and it turned into a remarkable gift for our younger students.   Although I cannot share all of the videos for privacy reasons (some included last names), they were so much fun.  And the looks on the faces of several of the younger siblings who saw their brothers and sisters in the videos were absolutely priceless!  The 2015 class set the bar very high for our younger students, not just academically, but in every way.  But I believe the upcoming classes are ready to follow in the steps of this class, and the example from the 8th grade class will inspire and encourage them in the coming year.

  

Happy Spring!

Spring is a busy time of year!  As we are heading into the last few weeks of school, the students are still working hard.  Our 8th graders took a Spanish Placement Exam for a local high school with an outstanding Spanish program this week.  Several did very well on the Spanish III exam, and most of them performed excellently on the Spanish II test.  It is always interesting to see how students do on tests outside of our own program, because the approach and material can be quite different.  I hope that the 8th graders are very proud of their achievements, and I am confident that they will continue to succeed in Spanish at any school they attend.

For a final project, the 8th grade students are designing Spanish videos to help out the 5th grade students as they strive to master verb conjugation and Spanish vocabulary.  I am so excited about seeing these videos.  To make it even better, many of the 8th graders have younger siblings in the 5th grade class!  I know that they will enjoying seeing what their older brothers and sisters pass on to their class.

During the NCEA conference that I attended, one of my favorite workshops featured learning games, and I have had so much fun adapting them for my classes here.  We have taken advantage of the gorgeous weather to take "Frederico" (the students' name for the beach ball--not sure where they got that) outside and practice.

Depending on the class, we have several variations.  For some, the color that their right thumb lands on when they catch the ball determines the type of word.  Other simply practice verb conjugations by using one in a sentence and sharing what it means.  Some use it for vocabulary practice.  The one constant is that we stay focused on Spanish while having a lot of fun!

National Spanish Exam Results

All Saints participated in the National Spanish Exam this year for the very first time, and the results were announced this morning.  A HUGE congratulations to Meagan K, winner of the Premio de Plata (Silver Medal), Hallie H. and Sarah W., winners of the Premio de Bronce (Bronze Medal) and to Freddie B., Bri M., Sam S., and Jericho D., for Mención Honorífica (Honorable Mention)!

I would like to specially recognize Hallie for scoring in the 98th percentile on the grammar section of the exam.  That is the 98th percentile out of about 100,000 students who took the exam!  Because of having had Spanish twice a week in elementary grades, our students were placed in the Outside Experience category, but nearly all of the students who participated in the exam would have qualified for an Honorable Mention in the Regular category, and Sam, Bri and Jericho would all have received medals, as well.  That is a wonderful achievement for any student, and particularly for middle school students who are competing against high school students!  As always, I am so impressed by the diligence and hard work that our students demonstrate.  It is truly an honor to be their teacher.

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.