Readers Theater with Karen Rowan was exciting! She opened the session with this song. She divided the class into two teams. Half of the class sang a line of the song as Don Quijote. We sang, “Yo soy yo Don Quijote”. She had it posted...
I have been so excited about this session since the iFLT schedule came out. This session is something that is dear to my heart. I teach students who are on the path to AP and I want to make sure that I am...
What an amazing experience being at iFLT has been! I have met so many of my favorite Spanish teachers! I am completely star struck! Today I got to attend the powerhouse session of Kristy Placido, “The Wonderful World of Intermediates”....
I am so happy I was able to be a part of Carrie Toth’s “Becoming Proficient in Proficiency”. She is extremely knowledgeable about this topic and I am confident that all the session participants left today feeling much more informed as I do. ...
Señor Wooly (aka Jim Wooldridge) kicked off iFLT 17 with an amazing keynote! He spoke about the role of authenticity versus inauthenticity in his life. He used his story as a musician to explain that he felt as if his musical career was...
Darcy’s Intermediate session was all about adapting novels to our classroom. She teaches levels 3, 4 and 5AP without a textbook and ENTIRELY WITH comprehensible input. She reiterated that using novels as the foundation of your curriculum gives compelling input and for that...
Today marks my first workshop at iFLT 17 and it was wonderful First, I spent some time with Jason Fritze. He has great energy! We learned many techniques that he used with his elementary students that would work really well in middle...
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...
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...