Ingredients in the soup

During the last four days, I have been thinking a lot about all the "ingredients" that we teachers use in our classes. As teachers, we all have our own "soup" that we serve to students. (I'm pretty sure that I read this metaphor on someone else's blog.) Every teacher's "soup" is unique and there is no exact, correct recipe for language teaching. (But yes, some soups definitely "taste" better and are more nourishing!) My soup ingredients have changed a lot and my soup has gotten much better in the six years that I have been sharing on this blog, partially because it is a place of reflection, but just as much, it has helped me to create an amazing PLN that I learn so much from!

I have spent the last four days at the Express Fluency Teacher Training in Brattleboro, VT. During this time, I observed some amazing teachers (Tina Hargaden, Grant Boulanger, Dustin Williamson, Annabelle Allen -AKA la maestra loca, Elissa McClean, and Justin Slocum Bailey) in classes and learned a ton from them at sessions too. One of the best parts of this conference was observing CI classes (if you can find a conference where you can do that, go!). I spent two days acquiring some French in Tina Hargaden's class. She is an amazingly skilled CI teacher. She made it so easy that at times that I didn't even realize I was sitting in a French class. I feel like I can really implement some of these CI strategies much better now.

Another highlight was that my sons (9 & 12) were able to be in class for four days with Annabelle Allen and Grant Boulanger. They really enjoyed the classes and acquired a lot. My boys even made comments about how this way of learning (really acquiring) Spanish is so easy and fun.

So, as I was at the conference, I got to thinking about what some of the main "ingredients" in my "soup" are, and I came up with these:

• Essential Questions for each unit (my school uses UbD for all curriculum)
• I can statements for most units (work in progress)
• A variety of assessments
• Unit packets (might do less of this this year)
• A focus and understanding on proficiency levels and what students can do at each level
• Culture!
• CI (Comprehensible Input)
• Fluency Matters Novelas (for whole class novels and FVR)
• Authentic resources (commercials, infographics, articles, podcasts, etc.)
• Cortometrajes (made into Movie Talk style slideshows: Ferdinando el toro, Carmina, Tres Segundos (and others), la ciudad coloreada, tech related, amor related, and many others... )
• Music and music videos (made into Movie Talk style slideshows: Soy yo, Echar pa'lante, Un besito más, Robarte un beso,  Calaverita, El mole, Chau, Sicario, and many others...)
• Movies (made comprehensible: Canela, La misma luna, Ladrón que roba a ladrón, Diamantes Negros, 3 Bellezas, También la lluvia, In the time of the butterflies, Los colores de la montaña, Voces inocentes, Machucha, El libro de la vida, Blancanieves... and probably some others too!)
• Telenovelas (Gran Hotel y El Internado)
• Sr. Wooly songs and nuggets
• Tarea Semanal
• Breakout EDU
• Pop up grammar
• Target Structures
• TPR
• PQA
• Resources and ideas from so many awesome teachers/bloggers/sharers/publishers: Arianne Dowd, Carrie Toth, Nelly Hughes, Mike Peto, Dustin Williamson, Kristy Placido, Carol Gaab, Elena López, Amy Zimmer, Cristina Zimmerman, Martina Bex, Sharon Birch, Bethanie Drew, Zachary Jones, Cynthia Hitz, and others too!

After these last four days, I have a some new "ingredients" to add to my soup.

• More CI
• Post basic rules in classroom (a version of Grant's, Tina's, Dustin's and Tina's)
• More listening first, then reading (I frequently do these at the same time)
• Story Listening (check out Dreaming Spanish, Mike Peto, Tina Hargaden, or Señor Mississippi videos for examples)
• More Flipgrid
• OWI - I had read about One Word Images in Tina and Ben's book, but I got to see it in action from Tina. If you want to learn more, here is Ben Slavic's poster that describes One Word Images. (check out Mike Peto or Tina Hargaden for examples)
• More untargeted words
• Writing and drawing more as I talk (instead of guided notes on slideshows)
• More personalization and using students as curriculum
• Three Ring Circus
• Circling
• Some of Tina's "CI in the upper level" ideas (this would take a lot of explaining, but this is what she based her presentation off of)

I hope to share more about these new ingredients during the school year!