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...
Several months ago, I was fortunate enough to sit in on Dr. Beniko Mason’s demo of her Story-listening (SL) approach to teaching language. I was immediately struck by the similarity between her approach and how we often “read” fairytales / legends to small children. When reading...
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...
THIS DRAWING HAS NOW ENDED! Ho! Ho! Ho! We've got a great gift for one lucky teacher! Enter our drawing to win a subscription of one Fluency Matters Spanish or French E-course of your choice for up to 150 students or a class set (25) of any...
When we enter our classrooms, we encounter students who will be superstar language students. These anomalies are easily able to learn language no matter what style of teaching, what text type, or minutes in the class hour. We also find students with different strengths, weaknesses,...
The following post is reprinted with permission from Eric Herman. It is an abridged version of a supplement to Issue 4 of the weekly Acquisition Classroom Memo, a review of must-know second language acquisition research and the implications for classroom teaching....
If there is one thing we’ve learned over the past decade, it’s that there is more than one path to proficiency and promoting a single method–whether intentional or as a byproduct of one’s name– implies that the SLA (second language acquisition) process is so simple...
As teachers of CI and TPRS, we are very aware of the level of rigor in our classrooms. Many who observe the silly nature or the high level of engagement often assume, initially, that the lesson itself is not very rigorous. When they sit down...
Sometimes we all just need a little reminder that there are a variety of ways to provide comprehensible input to our students. Here are a handful of great ideas contributed by some fabulous teachers to help you bring a dose of novelty into your classroom! Do...