Voces diferentes

In Spanish 1, as a presentational assessment, my students have to retell a shortened version of the stories that we do in each unit. They have pictures to help them and they practice a lot in class, mostly for 5-7 minute chunks. They can work alone (quietly whispering to themselves) or with a partner. And that has worked wonderfully, but today we tried something new called "Voces Diferentes." 

I got this idea at from Anne Matava at TCI Maine. This is what we did in class:

• I used the slideshow below to describe the activity.
• I chose 3 personas and said part of the story in that persona.
• Volunteers chose a persona (see below) out of bag. I let them pick a few times until they found a persona that they wanted to do. A few of them went out in the hall to discuss how they would act.
• The volunteers said part of the story in the voice of that persona. I had another student point to the pictures (projected) as the speaker narrated the story.
• After the volunteer finished saying the part of the story, the class guessed who the person is supposed to be talking as or talking to.
• This was a fun way to practice presentational speaking. One student's persona was me and he was very good at imitating me!                  

                         

Here are the possible personas (click here to see full doc):

TALKING AS...
You are a toddler having a tantrum.	You are teenage girl with an attitude problem.	You are a calm and patient teacher trying to explain something to the class.	You are a mean teacher who is yelling at the class.
You are sick and about to throw up.	You are a really happy person.	You are a really dull, boring person.	You are Mrs. Jacobs.
You are very addicted to your phone and cannot stop looking at it.	You are one of the ñus.	You just ate a really spicy pepper and you need some water.	You are VERY tired.
You are very dramatically telling your best friend some gossip.	You are a zombie.	You have to go to the bathroom really badly.	You are a politician.
You are a really nice kindergarten teacher.	You are a drill sergeant.
TALKING TO...
You are talking to someone who is very hard of hearing.	You are talking to someone who you have a crush on.	You are talking to someone who you are afraid of.	You are talking to a group of angry people and you are trying to calm them down.
You are talking to your arch enemy.	You are talking to someone who you are about to fire.	You are talking to an audience of people that you want to impress.	You are talking to someone who you want to listen very carefully.
You are talking to a baby.	You are talking to someone that you want to listen very carefully.

Our current story is "Los ñus" (idea and resources courtesy of Elena López). We have done a wide variety of activities with this story and the related vocabulary.

Below is the shortened version of the story that students will be retelling. We did a dictation activity with the sentences and students drew a picture to go along with each sentence. They will be able to use those pictures to help during the assessment.

• Hay dos ñus en la orilla del lago.
• Hay un objeto en el agua.
• El primer ñu dice, “Es un cocodrilo, ¡No lo toques!”
• El segundo ñu dice,  “No es un cocodrilo, es un tronco.”
• El primer ñu agarra una roca y la tira al objeto.
• Los dos ñus ven el objeto y no ocurre nada.
• El primer ñu agarra una rama y toca el objeto dos veces.
• El primer ñu está frustrado y tira agua al objeto.
• El primer ñu se sube arriba del objeto.
• El cocodrilo abre la boca y come el ñu.
• El primer ñu desaparece debajo del agua.
• Un tercer ñu llega. / Llega un tercer ñu.
• El segundo ñu dice, “Es un cocodrilo, ¡No lo toques!”
• El tercer ñu dice, “No es un cocodrilo, es un tronco.”

This is the rubric that I will use to grade them (for the assessment, not the activity):

	7-8	5-6	4 or less
Content	- You include all of the necessary components. - You may even include extra details.	- You are missing some of the components.	- You are missing many components.
Pronunciation	- Your pronunciation is excellent for the level you are in. - It is evident that you frequently repeat after the teacher to practice your pronunciation.	- Your pronunciation is good for the level you are in. - You don’t always repeat after the teacher to practice your pronunciation.	- Your pronunciation impedes comprehensibility. - Start repeating after the teacher!
Accuracy	- Your grammar is excellent for the level you are in.	- Your grammar is good for the level you are in. - Some errors may impede comprehensibility.	- You make many grammatical mistakes. - Your mistakes impede comprehensibility.
Fluidity	- You speak with very few pauses. - You are very prepared.	- You pause sometimes to think about what you are saying.	- You frequently pause and/or cannot remember words.

TCI Maine Takeaway: La estrella del día

Update - 1/30/17 - Here is a sheet for Spanish 2. Many of the questions are similar to the ones that I share below. Feel free to make  a copy and use it.

Update - 1/8/16 - Using "La Estrella de Día" in Spanish 1 was a great success! I am going to use it second semester with my Spanish 3 and Cultura y Civilización classes and I have adapted the questions. Click here to see the question sheet and here to see the slideshow template. Feel free to make a copy and use and/or adapt.

Also, here is a doc with some possible questions in French! Thanks Alice Ayel!

Just back from my first TCI Maine conference and it was fantastic! Skip Crosby and his wife do an excellent job of organizing this small, but very valuable conference. As always, it is really invigorating to be around like-minded professionals who are on the same path.

Sr. Wooly, Eric Herman, Sabrina Janczak, Laurie Clarcq, and Anne Matava were all engaging, kind, passionate, highly skilled TCI teachers who shared a ton. My biggest takeaways are: go slow, repeat, and personalize.

There is also one thing that I am definitely going to start using. It is Sabrina's "La Estrella del Día" idea. Sabrina said that she adapted the idea from Bryce Hedstrom's "La Persona Especial" idea. The idea is this:

• Students fill out a form with interview questions on it (with the help from the teacher). 
• Here is a document that I created (very similar to what Sabrina shared). Feel free to make a copy and add or subtract questions.
• The teacher collects the sheets and then "interviews" 2-4 students a week. The rest of the class listens respectfully. The question slideshow, with images to help comprehension (this one is for Spanish 1), is projected during the interview so that everyone understands.
• During the interview, the teacher asks follow up questions to the star of the day and/or asks related questions to the class.
• The teacher also takes a picture of them the day of the interview.
• The day after the interview, the teacher shares the slideshow (with pictures that illustrate the answers and the picture of the student) to review the information shared the day before. See examples here.
• Here is template for the presentación. It has the same questions as the doc above.
• At the end of the week, there is a quiz (more personalized CI!) like this. I think towards the end of Spanish 1 and/or in higher levels, I will ask them to write 3-5 facts about each person.
• This is an ongoing activity that could take many weeks.

Here are the reasons WHY Sabrina suggested this activity:

• Repetition that never gets boring
• Compelling: it's always about them, their favorite topic
• Students feel important and special --- a picture (selfie or not)
• Make students shine
• Authentic conversation
• Supported output (students use notes)
• after 4 or 5, students start to write notes
• speaking
• writing
• A chance to practice 1st, 2nd, 3rd person forms
• Higher order thinking
• I also think this will be a way to create a positive class culture.

Update 11/8/15: See links to lots of songs and slideshows from Elena, Dustin, Amy, Nelly, and Bethanie  here.

In Spanish 1, I am having a song and artist of the week. It is a fun way to start class each day. Also, they are exposed to a variety of accents, people, geography, and culture! I encourage them to try to sing, or at least read the lyrics and follow along. Sometimes the songs have vocabulary related to our current story and some are just fun. To go along with each song, I have created a slideshow about the singer/band. These slideshows are good because they are a great way to review these basic questions:

• ¿Cómo se llama?
• ¿De dónde es?
• ¿Cuántos años tiene?
• ¿Dónde nació?
• ¿Cómo es?
• ¿Qué es algo interesante de él/ella?

Again, this is not a totally original idea, but I am sharing my resources in case others can use them and it saves people some time. Below are the songs/artists that we have done so far (I think I need to include some more women!). I will posting more here. If any other teachers have similar slideshows to share, let me know. Also, here is the basic template that can be copied and adapted.

Also, a document with the lyrics and a translation is linked on the first page of each slideshow. Most are basic cloze activities, but some have other activities.

If any of this is useful for you, please consider giving back in a Radiohead style format.

Here are more from Elena López, Amy Zimmer, Dustin Williamson and Bethanie Drew.

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Here are some others created by the wonderful Elena López:

Song doc

Song doc

Canción/Artista de la semana para español 1

Update 8/17/18: Click here for Story AND Song of the week. The stories (sometimes video descriptions) are based on the music videos of songs.

Update 11/8/15: See links to lots of songs and slideshows from Elena, Dustin, Amy, Nelly, and Bethanie  here.

In Spanish 1, I am having a song and artist of the week. It is a fun way to start class each day. Also, they are exposed to a variety of accents, people, geography, and culture! I encourage them to try to sing, or at least read the lyrics and follow along. Sometimes the songs have vocabulary related to our current story and some are just fun. To go along with each song, I have created a slideshow about the singer/band. These slideshows are good because they are a great way to review these basic questions:

• ¿Cómo se llama?
• ¿De dónde es?
• ¿Cuántos años tiene?
• ¿Dónde nació?
• ¿Cómo es?
• ¿Qué es algo interesante de él/ella?

Again, this is not a totally original idea, but I am sharing my resources in case others can use them and it saves people some time. Below are the songs/artists that we have done so far (I think I need to include some more women!). I will posting more here. If any other teachers have similar slideshows to share, let me know. Also, here is the basic template that can be copied and adapted.

Also, a document with the lyrics and a translation is linked on the first page of each slideshow. Most are basic cloze activities, but some have other activities.

Here are more from Elena López, Amy Zimmer, Dustin Williamson and Bethanie Drew.

\

Here are some others created by the wonderful Elena López:

Song doc

Song doc

New immigration unit resource

I am going to show "La misma luna" in my Spanish 1 class. It is going to be a little break from the stories that we have been doing. So, I decided that before students watch the movie, I wanted to show the 18 minute PBS film "The other side," but I wanted to describe it in comprehensible Spanish for level 1 (hence some weird wording). I also wanted to introduce some more vocabulary that they will need for talking about "La misma luna" (hence the multiple repetitions of el padre, el hijo, y la hija - first intro to family vocabulary).

**Click here for more information about this resource.**

I am wondering if this will be too advanced for level 1, but I know it will definitely be successful for my immigration unit in my Culture and Civilization course. Here is the unit for level 1.

Here is the slideshow with some of the slides:

I am also going to use the song "ICE El Hielo" to go along with the unit. Below is a slideshow about the band, "La Santa Ceclia."