The novel Vector by Carrie Toth is set during the construction of the Panama Canal Brandon has been on the road for three weeks now and he always thought language classes were just about nouns and verbs! Boy was he wrong! He has been digging...
Two weeks after departing on his journey, Brandon Brown has been popping up, not only in a lot of classrooms, but all over social media as well. Seeing so many different classrooms and cultures has him thinking a lot about his own identity, both his...
Brandon Brown has been on the road for a whole week already! As he has travels from classroom to classroom, Brandon is learning a lot about the lives of students around the world. When he began this journey, he assumed that everyone grew up the same...
A summer without language class has left Brandon Brown feeling deflated and now he is on a mission! Brandon heard that planning for proficiency and preparing students for exit exams like the AP starts in level one! Could it be true? Are there seeds of...
WHAT IS FLIPGRID ONE? FlipGrid One is the basic, free FlipGrid service. “With Flipgrid One, you now have access to a free version of Flipgrid that never expires. You are allowed one grid with limited features. Add as many topics and record as many responses as...
Hi everyone, and happy Independence Day to our US readers! We hope that most of you are enjoying well-earned time with friends and family today! We are enjoying our day today, but will be back at work tomorrow preparing to bring you a fabulous week...
What’s up with Intermediate? In a classroom focused on comprehensible input, proficiency levels might seem to be difficult to define. They might not fit the mold set out for us by ACTFL. Many teachers who focus on proficiency and comprehensible input may feel that their students...
The other day I was catching up with an ex student of mine from Ohio, when he mentioned he was going to spend 3 weeks in Costa Rica, taking part in a biology course. Before I had time to think about what I was saying,...
Noches misteriosas en Granada is a novel that is particularly dear to my heart. It was the second novel I wrote for Fluency Matters. It was based heavily on an awesome student of mine whom I had taken on a student trip to Spain in...
Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha is a compelling read for students in levels 3 and up. Written by an anonymous author, it provides a glimpse into the life of a young man entrenched in the ranks of the world's most dangerous gang, the...
La hija del sastre by Carrie Toth and Carol Gaab is a great read for level 3 and 4 students! I personally really love teaching this novel as the anchor text for a large unit about the Spanish Civil War in Spanish 4. Fluency Matters...
One Teacher’s Suggestions for Surviving the Last Few Weeks of School If you are an educator, or know someone who is an educator, you know that the last few months of school, especially after spring break, can be brutal. The weather gets nicer, attention spans are even shorter,...
Felipe Alou: Desde los valles a las montañas, written by Carol Gaab is one of my favorite novels to teach in my Spanish 2 classes for several reasons. I like that it is a biography which tells the true story of a young man from the...
Have you tried MovieTalk? I'd like to share some tips on what I feel is one of the most important steps of MovieTalk: choosing the video! MovieTalk was developed by Dr. Ashley Hastings as part of the FOCAL SKILLS approach to language instruction and was targeted...
As authors at Fluency Matters, we are SO excited about all of the breakouts we have seen online! Teachers are the most generous group of people in the world! Considering doing a breakout for one of our (or any) novels? Already have a breakout ready?...
Games can be a fun break from the normal daily routine of a class. Sometimes just playing a game for a few minutes can invigorate a lagging group of students and prepare their minds for more input. As Carol Gaab frequently reminds us, brains crave...
Let’s kiss. No, not like that. Let’s K.I.S.S. Let’s Keep it Slow and Simple in our language classes. As the school year progresses I have found myself speaking in English more and more and in Spanish less and less. My adrenaline is wearing off; it’s...
Chances are, you’ve seen an “Escape Room” pop up in your community. Or maybe you have one of the hugely popular “Escape Room” apps on your phone like “The Room” series or “Can You Escape?”. Escape rooms are an exercise in problem solving and teamwork where...
You walk in your room. You see the slack faces and hear the groans as you say “Get out your book and open to page...
A huge trend right now in education across all levels and subject areas is breakout boxes. Inspired by “escape rooms,” which are a fun way to spend an evening with friends, breakout boxes can bring that same element of real-life fun and problem solving into...
Last year, I began to implement leveled readers and novels in some of my novice/intermediate low classes. I had always used stories in my classes, but I saved a lot of reading for upper level classes. One of my colleagues and I were able to...
It is mid-February! YEAHuuuuhhhhhh...
When I decided to write this blog post about ‘LOVE’ a few weeks ago, I had no idea that the topic would become much more relevant and meaningful than I had originally thought. My intent was solely to talk about collegiality, kindness, and love as...
Congratulations to our winners! We have been so overwhelmed by the outpouring of gratitude, support, and kind words that choosing a single winner was nearly impossible. We spent hours deliberating! There were so many amazing comments that we wanted to publish them all! Over the next several months,...
The reinforcement of the targets can be a long process, and can get old when a teacher is hitting the same topic day after day. Particularly at the upper levels, no one wants to spend 4-5 weeks talking about technology in schools or gender roles...
Have you ever read Pernille Ripp’s blog “Blogging in the Fourth Dimension”? She is an excellent blogger who is very passionate about “helping students fall in love with literacy again”. She describes how to create a passion for literacy in our classrooms....
Upper level students (levels 3 and up) present a unique set of challenges for any teacher. Most upper level students are either intermediate level proficiency or are pushing toward intermediate in most of their skills. By level 3, if they have spent 2 years experiencing...
Happy New Year, everyone! As most of you have heard by now, we changed our company's name in November of 2016, and we are so EXCITED to begin 2017 as Fluency Matters! This is the time of year when we all get very reflective. Where are...
Ready to take a look? You can shop here or view samples of our novels here!...
If you’re like me, you LOVE using TPRS/CI methods in your classroom. You have seen your students’ enthusiasm and proficiency skyrocket, and your own professional satisfaction is off the charts. And even though it’s not easy, it makes teaching joyful in a way that it...