This time of year, instead of dealing specifically with Halloween, I like to ask the question…What are you afraid of?
I start with this video. There is a worksheet to go with this video on the Real Language Right Away website. Here is the presentation I use for more input.
I have a list of common fears written on the white board in Spanish with a picture or a prop for each item. We then whip around the room quickly asking…¿De qué tienes miedo? We tally each person’s answer to find the most common fears for the class. I have students post their fears to a padlet with an image. I am always surprised that their biggest fear is usually spiders.
You can also have the students rank order their fears with a partner.
I like to give students this slide with links to songs, books, and videos related to things we fear. Basically it is a google slide with a background, layered with images, and links to book sites and Youtube videos. Click here to get a copy with the links.
I found some inexpensive books at Walmart and the dollar store in English. No problema, I made them bilingual by writing the Spanish word with a Sharpie.
A picture book can generate a thousand words. The book Good Night Gorila contains less then a dozen unique words but with it, I can generate a week’s work of lessons and discussions.
It’s not about how many words are in the book, it is about how many high frequency words I can use to describe it. I can add as much detail or as little detail as my students can handle.
Before the story I can build background knowledge about zoos and animals. Have you been to a zoo? Where? Which is your favorite zoo? Have you ever seen a gorila? Do you have a favorite animal? I can take a survey or launch a poll. I have them post their favorite animal on a padlet.
Here’s an example of the story being told in the simplest form.
And an example of the story being beefed up for upper levels.
I basically tell this story. There is a gorila. There is a mouse. Do you see the mouse? The mouse has a banana. There is a guard. The guard is tired. He is going home. He says goodbye to the little gorilla. The gorilla sees the keys of the guard. The little gorilla has a secret plan. What do you think he is going to do? The gorilla steals the keys. The little gorilla opens the door of the cage. He escapes. He does not close the door. The mouse escapes also with his banana. The gorilla and the mouse follow the guard. The guard does not see them. The guard says good night to the elephant and so on with the other animals. I can repeat key phrases like opens the door, closes the door, escapes, does not see, walks behind, says good night, sleeps, is afraid of, is not afraid of. I can describe the animals in more detail with colors and size. I can see if anyone is afraid of elephants, mice, lions or other animals. Here is an example of me telling the story in French and in Spanish.
I can make the setting cultural. I can make it the Parc Zoologique de Paris or Loro Parque in Madrid. We can investigate… do they have zoos in France and Spain, in all countries? We could then take a virtual field trip. We can make cultural comparisons. We can research and debate, are zoos good or bad for animals?
Reading skills like inferencing, sequencing, summarizing, and predicting can be incorporated throught questioning. Where do you think the animals are going? Are they going to run away? Is the wife angry? Is she afraid of the animals? How do you know? We can change the story or change the ending and have all the animals spend the night, or go on an adventure.
Open up a Jamboard, pair up students and play flyswatters or tic tac toe virtually. Afterwards, have students drag pictures in story order and practice retelling the story.
There are several ready made activities to practice the vocabulary in French with this quizlet. Here are a few in Spanish. Here is a couple of Kahoots for Spanish. Here is a Gimkit in Spanish. Here are some more follow up activities in Spanish.
The objective is for students to retell a simple story. Here are some Popscicle stick puppets to make retelling the story a little more fun.
For assessment here are some comprehension questions in French and Spanish and some drawing activities in French and Spanish.
For another option, plan a trip to the zoo. Your family is going to visit Paris, France over Spring break. Your family loves animals and wants to go to their zoo to see what similar and different animals they have. Pick the time when you can go (day and time), find out how much it will cost (in dollars and in the Euros). Find the map of the zoo so you have it handy. Also, identify 6 animals you want to see.
And still we could study animal habitats, talk about animals we are afraid of, discuss animals we eat, which animals make the best pets, which animals in danger of extintion, and there are so many fairy tales bassed on animals. The possibilities from one little 12 word book are endless.
The best gift we can give any child is the love of reading. But how do you get a child who doesn’t like to read in their first language to read in a foreign language? Start by reading to them, telling them stories, teaching them browsing strategies, and providing time and resources. There are several free and low cost options for free voluntary reading during the pandemic.
There are several free websites with digital books.
The Stories First Foundation founded by Dr. Beniko Mason and Dr. Stephen Krashen, is a great website for online short stories.
I love ebooks for kids, it has over 1,400 books in French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and English.
Epic is awesome and has hundreds of books in French, Spanish, Chinese, and English. There are digital books, audiobooks, and videos at various levels. I selected some titles and linked them to this classroom library slide so students can just click on them. I change it every couple of weeks to include holidays or themes we are studying.
The Fable Cottage has free stories in French, Spanish, Italian, English, and German.
Cécile Lainé and Anna Gilcher have created a monthly publication in French called Le Petit Journal Francophone. Martin Bex has created Revista Literal, a collection of student created short stories.
Fluency matters has e-libraries and e-courses in French, Spanish, and German. Each e-library includes 5-6 books for as little as $2 per student.
Terresa Marrama, the Compelling Language Corner, has awesome e-books and e-courses in French, Spanish, and German. Most E-courses include the book, audio, and quizzes or activities. She writes mysteries and also LGBTQ+ friendly novels. She has FVR packages that include 9 books for up to 150 students for $100 for one year, or you can purchase individual titles beginning at $2 per student.
Mike Peto, My Generation of Polyglots, has e-books available on his website. Browse the eBook library with novels available in French, German, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese and Spanish. Subscriptions are $29.99 per book for 1 teacher and up to 300 students. I joined his CI master class and his e-books and Maravillas are included in the subscription, it’s a deal!
Puentesebooks is the website for Jennifer Deggenhart’s novels in Spanish and French. Many of Jennifer’s books deal with identity and how important it is to know who you are. There is a FVR package of 9 novels for $100 for 150 students in Spanish. For French, there is a 5 novel package for $100 for 150 students. Ebooks can also be purchased as individual subscriptions for $2 each.
Mira Canion has 8 Spanish books for up to 300 students for $258 for a one year subscription or $68 dollars for 1 book for up to 300 students, on sale through January 2nd, 2021. The French e-library includes 3 novels for $109.00 for up to 300 students. I love her novels, I use La France en Danger and we create our own Picasso Museum as we read the novel.
Tina Hargaden has an e-literature library for $199.00 with access to all books in several languages.
Fangloo is a digital reader subscription through Teacher’s Discovery. 35 readers in Spanish for $99 for a year subscription for up to 150 students. There is a free trial.
Nothing kills the love of reading more than copious post reading activities. When I read for pleasure, I don’t normally answer comprehension questions. I prefer to ask my students, did you like the story? Another option is to have students rate the book with a star system. How many stars would you give this book?
I am a lucky person. I have won a trip to the Philippines, a TV, hundreds in free groceries, free paint and sip classes, novels, and much more. This week I won a hand-painted wine class from a wine event, an autographed poster from Señorwooly, and $100.00 off registration for me and another teacher to the iFLT conference in Denver.
So I am hoping to spread the luck. I would like to offer $100 off registration to the International Forum on Language Teaching (iFLT) conference to a teacher who has not been to an iFLT conference before. I also have a companion ticket for Alaska Airlines that we could use to reduce the cost of airfare, and of course split the cost of a hotel room in Denver.
As a conference junkie, I have attended hundreds of conferences and think the iFLT conferences by Fluency Matters are awesome. Carol Gaab and her team are among the best in the business. I attended the iFLT conference in Breckenridge, Colorado and learned a lot. This years conference is July 11-14 with Fluency Fast classes available before the conference July 7-10. For more information on the conference go to the Fluency Matters website. If you are interested contact me at JohnstonL@edmonds.wednet.edu.
Runners-up will receive $100 off iFLT registration for themselves and $100 off iFLT registration for a colleague!**
Lynn Johnston
I feel like I am learning how to teach in the target language 90% of the time with novices from day one because of the Fluency Matters team. Every time I am lucky enough to secure a spot in a Carol Gaab presentation I leave with new ideas and inspiration. The class sets of novels and teachers guides have made teaching easier for me and reading more enjoyable for my students. However, my light bulb moment was at an ACTFL session when Carol Gaab demonstrated higher order thinking using compelling comprehensible input. Probable or possible or its variations logical and illogical are now standard in my teaching. Students are hearing vocabulary in context and are thinking at a higher level, but are able to respond with very little forced language. Who might say is another higher order thinking activity I learned from Fluency Matters. Students must infer who might say something based on context, content and/or verb form. Another activity I learned from the fluency matters team is the action chain. Students love to act and I get lots of repetitions of the language structures while having students determine a logical order for the events. This summer I discovered the webinars and the CI peek blog. I plan to use these a lot more in the future. I would really love to attend the IFLT conference and bring a new teacher I am mentoring in my district.
To start my school unit, I begin with the story of the new girl. Get it here free at Teacherspayteachers.com. La Nouvelle Fille in French and La Chica Nueva in Spanish. This is the first story I teach each year as I train students to react to my statements with the appropriate Ohhhhh when a new fact is introduced, and Oh-no, oh-no, oh-me, oh-my, when a problem occurs. It is good way to introduce subjects in school and high frequency verbs.
Comparing class schedules, lunches, subjects, calendars, uniforms, attitudes is more fun with hula hoops as venn diagrams! Create sentences in the target language for students to sort into similarities and differences. Examples are: We wear uniforms. Schools are free. School starts at 8:am. We go to school on Saturdays. We have school all year long. We have a summer vacation. We have our own computers. We are allowed to have phones. We eat lunch at school. We get out at 3:00. We get out at 5:00. We have sports teams at school. We study English. We study French. Create your own sentences or use the ones I created at Teachers Pay Teachers.com in French and Spanish.
For another comparative activity, have students create a table in a Google document and type up their own schedule. Practice interpersonal speaking skills by having students ask each other which is your favorite class, which is your least favorite class, who is your favorite teacher, who is your least favorite teacher, which class is the most difficult, which class is the easiest for you? Search the internet for some authentic schedules from schools in the target culture and have students compare and contrast.
Mi Horario
Hora
Clase
Profe
Opinión de clase
Opinión de Profe
1 8:00-9:00
Los Estudios Sociales
Señor Choe
Dificil
Simpático
2 9:05-10:00
Ciencia
Señorita Dombroski
No Me Gusta
Simpática
3 10:05-11:00
Educación Física
Señor Turcott
Fácil
Gracioso
4 11:00-12:30
El Inglés
Señorita Gronvold
Aburrida
Estricta
5 12:35-1:30
El Español
Señora Johnston
Comica
Divertida
6 1:35-2:30
Las Matemáticas
Señora Ericksen
Me Gusta
Inteligente
Recently, story listening has been a hot topic on many blogs. Telling stories to children is a lot like reading to children! I like to use David Va al Colegio and David Va à l’Ecole to introduce commands. I read the story to the students like I would to my own kids at night, stopping to point out details in pictues and asking questions. As a follow up, have kids write commands for what David should be doing, or make their own versions of things they should not be doing in school, like no texting in class, and no speaking in English.
I recorded a French and Spanish version.
Another one of my favorite activities for teaching commands is Sentence Strip Simon Says. Combine class objects, body parts, and commands and write them on sentence strips. Create some novel commands for fun. Be sure to include: Put your pencil in your ear. Put a book on top of your head and walk. Open the door and say “Bonjour Mes Amis.” Make your own sentences or check out my sentences in French and Spanish at TPT. Place the sentences face down on the floor and have students draw one, read it to the class, and act it out.
My roommate at Central Washington University my freshman year was from Hawaii. She did not like the cold weather in Ellensburg, Washington, was not used to wearing shoes and socks, and was homesick for her family, friends, and culture on Oahu. To get through that snowy winter of 1979, she would buy a six pack of Lowenbrau and say to me… let’s talk story.
On a recent trip to Kaua’i, I came across this little bookstore in Hanapepe called Talk Story. My mind immediately went to Kim and our times together away from home, sitting in our corner of a four person dorm room, talking story about our lives, fears, and dreams. That’s the purpose of what we do, to teach people to interact in the target language, to talk story.
The brain is wired for storytelling. Throughout time, a culture’s history and legends have been passed along through stories. We love to hang out with family and friends and embellish our experiences. As we were traveling around Kuau’i, local tour guides kept pointing out locations of over 100 different movies filmed on the island. The entertainment industry makes massive money based on great stories. If you are going to a social engagement, just go see the latest new movies and you will instantly have something to talk about with anyone.
One way to get students to talk story is through “movie talks.” Movie talks were used by Dr. Ashley Hastings to help intermediate level university students comprehend full length movies. But the technique has been adapted by many language educators and is used with short films, commercials, public service announcements, movie trailers, television shows, and websites with gags and pranks, even at the novice level. Talking about things we have heard, read, or viewed with others is authentic communication.
Around the end of October, I like to use the short film El Monstruo del Armario. It is a great way to get started with this technique. I use the same film with my French classes and just narrate in French. Some popular videos for movie talks with resources on Teacherspayteachers are Wildebeast with a free script in Spanish, Partly Cloudy, Destiny , Crazy Carrot, and Alma. I movie talk Senorwooly videos, especially the beginning of PAN were I describe the entire family, their actions, food and table settings. I also movie talk the old DVD’s I have collected from Teacher’s Discovery over the years to get more input out of the videos. Check out this website with 55 clips and my Pinterest page for more movie talk ideas. Blaine Ray has a new CD with story scripts for $50.00 called Look I can Movie Talk in French and Spanish.
Although not a video yet, here is another visual, an old Powerpoint, that I start my year with to teach students how to do stories. Get The New Girl here free in French La Nouvelle Fille and in Spanish La Chica Nueva. We add details all year long as we learn new topics and information about the new girl and her story. Let’s give them something to talk about. What’s your story?
