This year our first day of school is Tuesday, August 15th. I am looking forward to meeting you then!

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I can hardly believe it, but we only have three more days this school year. Where did the time go? It was a busy semester, but I’m so proud of how much my students have accomplished this year!  We continued with our curriculum for level one, but these are few of this semester’s highlights:

Spanish 1 classes:

• Epcot 2017: We started the 2nd semester with our annual trip to Epcot. Students who were able to go, gave two-minute presentations (PechaKucha style) about their trip and those who didn’t attend talked about what they did during the 3-day weekend.
• No inglés: I re-committed to  the “Señora does not speak English policy”. To get students on board and give them the responsibility for holding me accountable, I  added a little competition between the two class periods. If the entire class was conducted  in Spanish while still making it comprehensible, the class earned points for the day.  If I accidentally reverted to speaking English and they pointed it out the class earned extra points.  The class that ended up  with the most points earned a celebration party at the end of the semester. Students enjoyed the competition and loved being able to “catch” me using English. And, I loved the fact the they were listening to lots of Spanish!
• Lab Day: We continued using Mic Note to practice presentations, conduct partner interviews and answer questions.  We also continued using Google Classroom to make announcements, create or submit assignments or assessments with Google Forms.  We used our textbook’s Supersite for interpretive listening and reading activities.
• Glyphs:  We tried some of Martina’s ideas for interpretive reading activities and assessments and students enjoyed the low-pressure challenge of reading small chunks while providing evidence of understanding and receiving feedbak quickly.
• End of the Year Presentations: ( Pechakucha  style) Students spoke for up to three minutes using either a pictures-only Google Slides presentation or a silent video. They talked all about themselves as it related to our six themes (personal facts, school, family, hobbies and activities, vacations and shopping).  They were amazing!
• Review Group Project:  Students designed a dynamic lesson presentation based on the  can-do statements for each of our six themes. They formed groups and assigned a job each team member. Some of the jobs included:  vocabulary presentations, grammar concept reviews, skits,  sample sentences, songs and games.

Cambridge Pre-AICE Spanish 1 classes:

• No inglés: We continued the “Señora does not speak English policy”, but added a small twist. A day of the week was designed as “no inglés” for students. In January, we started with Wednesday or “miércoles en español” adding a new day to each consecutive  month, so that in May everyday was en español.  At first, students were apprehensive about it; however, they rose to the challenge and exceeded my expectations.  I loved hearing them speak to each other and use circumlocution  rather than giving up and resorting to using English. 
• Circle time: These low-stress-brain-break activities were some of my students favorites.  We would all literally stand up and form a giant circle and play a game, sing a song, recite a poem or ask and answer questions while still speaking Spanish.
• Novels: We read two of Carol Gabb’s novels Brandon Brown quiere un perro and El Nuevo Houdini. Students read with partners, in small groups, reader’s theater style, acted out scenes and retold main facts.
• Lab Day:  In addition to using  Mic Note, Google Classroom, Google Forms, and our textbook’s Supersite, we explored writing simple stories using Storybird and journaling collaboratively about our weekend using Padlet.  Sr. Wooly‘s videos and songs quickly became students’  favorite interpretive listening activities.
• Fashion Show: During our shopping unit, students formed groups, picked a theme and put on some hilarious fashion shows.  Two of the team members served as MCs describing each ridiculous outfit each “model” was wearing and then conducted an interview with each “model” about his/her shopping habits. Students were so creative coming up with great themes for their group’s fashion show everything from “the injured” to “Christmas” to “Hawaiian vacation”, etc.
• End of the Year Video Projects: Students formed groups and created a Spanish novela to showcase this year’s themes.   The stories and videos were funny, creative and fun! It took us three days to watch all the videos, but we really enjoyed them and had some great laughs.
• Enrichment: We read several Spanish readers/books including:  Deb Navarre’s series  (La Novia, El Viaje, El Desafio), Pobre Ana and Los Baker’s van a Perú. We watched Living on One Dollar, McFarland, USA and the BBC’s interactive drama Mi Vida Loca. Students competed in groups to see which group created the best video for Jarabe de Palo’s song Bonito.

I’m so grateful for all my students.  They were willing to try new things, be creative, work hard,  take risks and make mistakes and best of all they didn’t give up! My hope is that they continue on the proficiency path for years to come, but for now we are all ready for summer break ♥

Wow! Our first semester flew by, but I say that every year.  It was a great semester and students are making amazing progress increasing their proficiency levels.  We strive daily to use the target language  and although we don’t reach the 90% use of the target language as per ACTFL’s recommendation daily, we continue to make progress toward that goal.  This semester my Cambridge  Pre-AICE 1 classes started earning ClassDojo points whenever they catch me using English.  Every class has at least one student who is quick to point  out when I revert to using English unnecessarily.  This has encouraged students to accept hearing the target language as  our routine and has helped me to be mindful to provide daily comprehensible input to my students.

Each week we enjoy listening to our song of the week, “canción de la semana”. Two of our favorites this semester were Hoy es domingo and Soy yo.

Students have daily opportunities to hear each other use the target language. In addition to practicing and engaging in simple partner conversations, we have one or two students who act as our reporter for the day “reportero(a)” in front of the class. They answer prepared questions about our current topics as well as give some memorized information, the latter to focus on pronunciation. Students are randomly selected using ClassDojo which encourages them to be prepared. Students were timed on their most recent presentation to help them build fluency and they rose up to the challenge. Most of them were able to finish well under the allotted time.

With the goal of increasing fluency, using comprehensible input, we tried something new and different. First, I presented in the target language a short story/joke using gestures and a pictures only PowerPoint, which helped students clearly understand the story/joke. Then, for the next several days as a class , we repeated the story aloud and  with gestures as a brain break.  Finally, we took our “show” on the road and presented it to the AP classes.  It was great having a different audience for a speaking presentation.

After reading in the target language and annotating our textbook articles about the US,  Canada and Spain, students designed and created infographics using Piktochart  or easel.ly They presented their infographics to their partners in class who rated them using a provided rubric. Students enjoyed giving and receiving feedback from their peers.

During our weekly lab days, we continued using the app Mic Note to record messages, practice before a presentation or embed recordings into a Google Slides presentation.
Students completed the recordings individually or  with a partner or in groups, depending on the assigned task.  We used Google Forms regularly for formative and summative assessments and surveys.  When using Google Forms as assessments, students are able receive instant feedback on their responses and most of all, they loved knowing how they scored. We also continued using Quizlet Live and Kahoot! to practice vocabulary which always brings out everyone’s competitive nature. We also used our textbook’s video and listening activities to provide students different native speaker samples.

When we talked about what people do students created graphic organizers to include: the verb, translation, conjugation chart, sample sentences and an illustration of the verb.

Similarly students  created graphic organizer posters to talk about personal likes and dislikes and presented these to the class.

Students maintained an interactive notebook for vocabulary and grammar structures.

At the end of their first semester in Spanish class, students completed this writing assessment. Although not flawless, they certainly were able to provide some simple personal facts and talk about teachers, classes, likes and dislikes and activities.

Homecoming pictures:

Now, we’re looking forward to our annual field trip to Epcot next weekend!

We have been enjoying a great school year!  Students have been motivated and are trying new things, taking risks, being creative and making mistakes, as they strive to communicate in Spanish. They can now exchange personal information.

Students searched and discovered Spanish used around our community.

We used Google classroom and Google Slides  for students to  collaborate with a partner and create their first “story”.

We discussed some fun facts about the Spanish speaking culture.

Students researched some basic facts about Spanish speaking countries, created notebook covers and recorded a presentation in Spanish about the country using the MIC note app. 

Welcome!The first day of class is Tuesday,  August 16th! Please see below (Español 1 or Cambridge Pre-AICE 1) supplies needed for the 2016 – 2017 school year. Then, check the menu tab on this page and use the link to your course to learn more about it.

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I am looking forward to meeting you on Tuesday.

Sra. Scarborough

We had a great time! 

Spanish 1:  

We’ve had a busy semester! Students can talk about what they or others do using a variety of-AR verbs. Students also engaged in conversations to talk about likes and dislikes.  Students identified family relations vocabulary and created a family tree. They worked in groups to tweak the Tengo una familia grande lyrics and then performed the new version. It was great fun. 

Cambridge Pre-AICE:

 Students ended the unit by creating a personal profile page to talk about themselves, classes they take and activities they enjoy.  In the process I discovered I have some amazing artists in class!

  
We finished the semester by reading the novel Brandon Brown quiere un perro. Students enjoyed the story and the opportunities to participate in readers theater. After we finished reading the book, planned and presented “movie trailers” to highlight memorable scenes.