These are some good questions that Alex, the lead teacher of a school I am working with, has asked: What habits have you observed in excellent Spanish programs? This is what has worked for me and what I have observed: • Routines. Regular, well though-out routines and rituals. - [...]
I did a demonstration for teachers this week. The students were from a 7th grade middle school Spanish I class. All of the middle school world language team leaders in the school district observed. The students were in the middle of a unit that focused on: Greetings Classroom expressions [...]
This is an excerpt from my book Hi-Impact Reading Strategies Ping Pong Reading (AKA Volleyball Reading) This is a reading and oral interpreting exercise that you can do every so often as a review. I would not do this every day, maybe not even every week, because so much L1 [...]
Multilevel Classes? Reading "Junk" May Be the Answer! Every class is a multilevel class. The schedule may say students are all at the same level and have been placed in the appropriate class, but reading levels are all over the place... or soon will be. When the spread becomes [...]
Teachers often ask me why I feature verbs so prominently in my training and materials for beginning students. It's because that's where the action is! And using verbs over adjectives can make for compelling storytelling. I try to follow the storytelling advice from the creators of South Park: the [...]
Another school year is almost here. Starting off the new school year is a new beginning with new opportunities... and it's always exciting! I was driving a backroad in northern Colorado the other day and came upon this scene. A forest fire had swept through this hillside a few [...]