A friend recently wrote asking, "What resources would you recommend for someone who is trying to learn Spanish? My barista's boyfriend's family speaks exclusively Spanish and she's trying to fit in. She's using Duolingo currently." Here is my response: In my opinion Duolingo is not the best resource for [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
An expanded version of this lesson is available here. This is an activity that can be done as a follow-up to a short story between week 2 and 3 of a Spanish 1 class. The Bell Ringer/Do Now assignment, called the Repasito, is displayed below. In the example, the Repasito [...]
Ojalá que llueva café is a classic—an oldie, but a goodie. There are many ways this song is helpful for Spanish teachers. Here is a complete lesson, an example of how to teach and use music in Spanish class. My Spanish students have always enjoyed this song because it's [...]
If you teach heritage speakers, or Spanish 3, 4, 5, or AP Spanish, you need to get this book into your students' hands. El libro salvaje, by esteemed Mexican author Juan Villoro, was published in Mexico and has been around since 2008, but Spanish teachers in the United States [...]