Talia Block
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BreakoutEDU in the World Language Classroom

2/8/2019

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​Escape rooms are all the rage right now, so why not cash in on the fun? BreakoutEDU offers a way for students to get the experience of an escape room within the confines of your classroom. Even better is that you have the opportunity to customize the breakout to fit your students’ age, content and language level. Once you get started, creating clues and events will be a breeze.
 
Preparation
Like any other lesson, I found that starting with the end in mind was really helpful. I set up a scenario that relates to the content we are studying and gives a hint as to what they should be prepared for. For my 4th grade animals unit, it seems as though some animals were stolen from the zoo and locked up in our school while the 5th grade students needed to unlock a petition to stop the use of plastic straws in the school.
 
Selecting the right part of the unit to do this is also essential. At the start of a unit, students don’t tend to have enough related vocabulary to accomplish the task, but at the end of the unit they are ready to move on to the next topic. Breakout activities are great for re-invigorating the learning and reignites excitement about the topic. Another benefit of doing the breakout mid-unit is that I can recycle material from class to create clues. Whether clips from a movie or an infographic, making a clue of something familiar can keep the clue from being too difficult or frustrating.
 
One last thing to consider is the amount of time you have to complete the breakout. My classes are 30 minutes long, which really becomes 25 by the time we get settled, I explain the activity and we clean up. I found that splitting the class into teams and having each team complete only one clue. If a team finished early, they were to split up and help the other groups (who were also told to accept the help!)

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Essential Questions are...Essential

1/11/2017

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Essential questions are a part of planning every unit, but up until this point they have really been for my benefit. They helped guide my activities and assessments and gave me a direction. But essential questions (EQ) aren’t just for me. My students need to know the essential questions so they know where we are headed and on what to focus their energy. So when we started our unit on animals, I put the EQs on post-it paper in the front of the class: How are all living things connected? Why are all living things important? I asked the students to brainstorm some ideas in Spanish and they couldn’t come up with anything – a sign I have a good EQ. What would be the point of an EQ that students can answer before the unit even begins??
 
We are now about half way through the unit and we revisited our EQs. Students had a better idea, but still struggled to come up with answers. We began the unit looking at the relationship between wolves and the other animals in Yellowstone through a short video called How Wolves Change Rivers. 


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Using Instagram for INterpretive Activities

11/4/2015

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Instagram is a social network platform of images and descriptions from around the world. By following people on Instagram, you receive photographs and videos in a constant stream. These visuals, posted by native speakers from around the world, offer a wealth of resources for the World Language classroom. Posts are done by native speakers, for native speakers, and make for the perfect piece for classroom activities. These images are great for activities in all three modes, but especially for the interpretive.
 
One of my favorite accounts is National Geographic in Spanish (@Natgeoesp). As expected, the images in this account are gorgeous, and offer stunning scenery and animal shots. The photo below is one of my favorites, and is perfect for my novice-level unit on animals and the food chain! Not only does the picture capture the food chain in motion, but the caption “¡La captura! ¡La caputra en el aire!” gives a jumping-off point for a conversation around the animals, their eating habits, and the food chain in general.

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Building Better Sentences

3/4/2014

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When learning a new language, creating sentences with that language can be one of the most difficult tasks. Students can easily respond with a single word, and the more advanced students make simple sentences. While this is great, and an important part of the progression of learning a language, I always want more! Helping students create strong sentences is a challenge in their first language, so can we really expect them to create complicated sentences in a novice level language class? Of course!

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Interactive Student Notebook

2/18/2014

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As I scroll through Pinterest, I constantly see the idea of an Interactive Notebook (IN). I've seen IN for math, language arts or science, but not for Spanish. IN are a great note-taking method in the upper levels (as seen in Profa. Baros's Blog), but at the elementary level, they are way to engage the students in the content and provide a sort of portfolio for the year's work. I decided to give this idea a go. 
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Ideally, I would begin the IN at the beginning of the year. Each student will bring a composition notebook, which they can decorate and make their own. 


Students will tab each section according to the themes we study: food, animals and activities. A fourth tab will be for a running dictionary, which can be kept alphabetically or thematically. 


For teachers other than Spanish, tabs can divide each unit or can focus on a more conceptual approach. The dictionary piece can be more like a glossary.

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Each section has its own index to help students keep track of their work.

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A Blank Canvas

12/19/2013

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Every unit of study provides the opportunity to create a project. One of my favorite things about teaching Spanish is that projects are an integral part of the curriculum. Often time, it is not what to present, but how. This easy to make triangle display (see below for instructions) is a great vessel for any number of topics, whether in the World Language Classroom or beyond.

For my current unit, my 4th graders are studying animals in a few different land and water habitats. For this presentational activity, students were instructed to choose one land and one water habitat to present to the class. Students fill their habitats with an appropriate background and a few animals. Once the habitats are complete, students will share with the class, focusing on our vocabulary and the learned phrase of "(The animal) lives in (the habitat)". 


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Fortune Teller Fun - el comecocos

11/21/2013

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Who didn't love playing with fortune tellers (or cootie catchers) as a kid? Why not bring some childhood fun to Spanish class! A fortune teller is a great way to practice colors and numbers along with any other content you are studying. 


The first part of the activity is a great interpretive activity, as students listen to your instructions and fold as they go. While many know how to make a fortune teller, they should listen and follow the steps as you go. For step-by-step instructions, click here.
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Students choose 4 colors for the outside. They should make sure they can spell them in Spanish!
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Students write 8 different numbers - one on each half triangle. 


*Numbers should not exceed 25 or so, since they have to count that high at each turn.*
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