HOLA
I use Buen Viaje also and have used it for YEARS!
Do you know about:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4q55t/miclaseestuclase2/index.html

and there are more out there too- lots of materials for Buen Viaje

--- In maestrosdeespanol@yahoogroups.com, "hollyrah1976" <trooper22@...> wrote:
>
> Hello all, I am new to this group...
>
> I am a native English speaker who has always loved learning Spanish... I spent
some time in Mexico as a cultural immersion student in college and when college
was over I was hired in Phoenix as an elementary teacher and had lots of
opportunity to practice my Spanish.  When I got pregnant with my first child, I
moved back to Michigan (where there aren't so many opportunities to practice ;)
where I landed a job teaching Spanish I and II at a Catholic School.  We use
Glencoe's Bien Viaje books, which are not my favorites, but we have to use the
same as the public school system.
>
> Anyway, I am so happy about finding this group.  I am looking forward to
perusing the resources and posting some of my own.  I am also really interested
in starting some sort of language practice group, such as a book club for people
who would like to read and discuss books in Spanish...
>
> How do you all maintain your fluency?
>
> Looking forward to working together!
> Holly
>

Holly, I am so thankful for your post. I am in exactly the same boat, with the
places being different. My confidence level has dropped and I have looked into
many options to improve, but none seem to fit my schedule or seem to really
work. I am excited to hear the replies.

Oh....and welcome to the group. These people are full of wisdom.

Monica

--- In maestrosdeespanol@yahoogroups.com, "hollyrah1976" <trooper22@...> wrote:
>
> Hello all, I am new to this group...
>
> I am a native English speaker who has always loved learning Spanish... I spent
some time in Mexico as a cultural immersion student in college and when college
was over I was hired in Phoenix as an elementary teacher and had lots of
opportunity to practice my Spanish.  When I got pregnant with my first child, I
moved back to Michigan (where there aren't so many opportunities to practice ;)
where I landed a job teaching Spanish I and II at a Catholic School.  We use
Glencoe's Bien Viaje books, which are not my favorites, but we have to use the
same as the public school system.
>
> Anyway, I am so happy about finding this group.  I am looking forward to
perusing the resources and posting some of my own.  I am also really interested
in starting some sort of language practice group, such as a book club for people
who would like to read and discuss books in Spanish...
>
> How do you all maintain your fluency?
>
> Looking forward to working together!
> Holly
>

Hello all, I am new to this group...

I am a native English speaker who has always loved learning Spanish... I spent
some time in Mexico as a cultural immersion student in college and when college
was over I was hired in Phoenix as an elementary teacher and had lots of
opportunity to practice my Spanish.  When I got pregnant with my first child, I
moved back to Michigan (where there aren't so many opportunities to practice ;)
where I landed a job teaching Spanish I and II at a Catholic School.  We use
Glencoe's Bien Viaje books, which are not my favorites, but we have to use the
same as the public school system.

Anyway, I am so happy about finding this group.  I am looking forward to
perusing the resources and posting some of my own.  I am also really interested
in starting some sort of language practice group, such as a book club for people
who would like to read and discuss books in Spanish...

How do you all maintain your fluency?

Looking forward to working together!
Holly

1.       Should I be so worried about using visuals, especially illustrations/pictures, in my classroom?

 How should I set up my formal assessments for vocabulary development?

There are lots of types of assessments I can come up with the "test" students understanding of vocabulary, much of which deal with writing of some sort: fill in sentences with words from the word bank, label drawings, match pictures with terms, match definitions or English equivalents with terms, draw listed items, write English translation, write the L2 translation based off of the English terms or sentences, etc.

How do I know which one to use?

Does it have to be congruent with HOW the students have been practicing the vocabulary inside and/or outside of the classroom? For example, if I had the students label pictures in Spanish for our single in-class activity to reinforce the vocabulary terms, does that mean my vocab. quiz has to have the same pictures and/or same format?

Harry Wong states that we as teachers need to assess the students in the same manner as we practice the material during class work. Personally, I see validity in that point of his. It definitely throws people off when they have been practicing the material one way and you test them another way, although it's still the same material. In the students' minds, they were expecting the same format as before. Sometimes, the students kind of freeze up mentally or resist because it's something different from what they are used to doing. On the other hand, theoretically, we as teachers want our students to be able to apply the vocabulary in whatever format because students need to learn to apply their language skills in multiple formats. They shouldn't just get to one way. What are your thoughts on this? Should I be making sure my assessments match up the same format as our practice work, even taking problems from the practice work for the assessment?

Also, in one far back region of my brain, I feel guilty for not assessment students more in a more real-life, verbal or physical modality over the vocabulary. It's usually the written modality because it's easiest to manage, grade, and control as a teacher. Also, it's more of the "academic" modality used in college, etc. Should I worry about this? With 33-34 in some classes of high school freshmen taking Spanish I for the first time, I worry about how manageable this test modality would be given these circumstances. (Oral testing does take a long time and can be more subjective on the part of the evaluator.)

Daniel Hanson

High School Spanish Instructor/Teacher

Modesto, California, USA

Once I have established meaning of the list of vocabulary terms for a particular topic or subtopic, what strategies can I teach or give to my students so they can be more responsible for their own learning? (Of course, I will do reinforcement activities in class with the book materials, but I want something to give them to use and apply with any vocabulary they learn in the formal, academic setting of a foreign language class.)

Right now I can think of:

-          mnemonics

-          draw and label pictures that represent the vocab. in the student's mind

-          play charades / act out the vocab.

-           use flashcards (and there are different ways to make the flashcards: one side has the expression and the other side has the English equivalent; one side has the word and the other side has a picture or a sentence with the word in context; one side has the word  and on another card there is a picture to illustrate the word, etc.) (I need to be better about having my students use flashcards in the classroom and having them use them in different ways)

-          study vocab. lists

-          make a word poem (the word is written down and each letter starts each clue phrase or sentence that ties back into the meaning of the word; for Spanish I this is done in English, the clues that is)

That's all I can think of right now.

I feel I need to start teaching strategies that students can use outside of the classroom instead of taking a less-active role in their learning (i.e., just sit in class and do class work and except to do well on the quizzes and tests). (Although the idea of having to check for some type of tangeable, i.e., measurable, evidence that they have used every strategy at least once during the semester or school year doesn't seem very appealing to me either.)

Daniel Hanson

High School Spanish Instructor/Teacher

Modesto, California, USA

Concerns about establishing meaning in the academic setting

Okay, here's my second post of concerns I have when I want to establish meaning for a list of vocabulary terms for a vocab. theme/topic/section/subsection:

1.       Should I be so worried about using visuals, especially illustrations/pictures, in my classroom?

I think some of my problem is I don't want to spend time copying, cutting, pasting vocab. pictures from the textbook, workbook, and ancillary materials to create vocab. flashcards for the students, nor do I want to hunt down the perfect images in clipart or online either. The last year or two I have done this during the 2^nd semester of Spanish I, putting 20 or so pictures of vocabulary relating to one or two vocab. topics or subtopics for a particular unit of study (in other words, chapter). The first time I would provide the students with their own copy of the handout. They would label the illustrations (usually all from the textbook materials) in Spanish. Then in a day or two later, I would give them the same handout again, but count it as a vocab. quiz (sometimes I gave them word banks). I don't think I am applying very well the use of visuals to enhance vocab. development  with this routine. The kids seem to like doing the worksheets because they are very, VERY basic. The problem with this is I have limited money to make copies, even less this year than before. So, doing this doesn't seem an option unless you're working at a school with unlimited copying or something. I sometimes question how effective this routine is in terms of "truly" acquiring the vocab. It seems to me that the same brainpower required to memorize lists of vocabulary with the English translation on the side (like what we find in the textbook) (and what lots of teachers in other disciplines use when introducing or working with terms) is being used because students have to memorize what the picture represents. For instance, I present a picture of a car on the highway (black-and-white illustration) to my Spanish I class (of about 33-34 students). Some students might think, "Oh, that's a car!" (which is what *I* want them to think); others might think, "Oh, I know what that is. That's a highway!", while even others might think, "Oh, I know what that is. That's the verb for `driving,' because that man in the car looks like he's driving, huh?". Won't I have to use verbal clues (and these verbal clues would have to be in the L1, or possibly in the L2—but since I teach Spanish I, there isn't much the students will comprehend, will there?) to help concretize what *I* want them to see in the picture in order to establish the meaning? This, to me, makes using illustrations, etc., not as concrete as using vocab. lists with English translations. Word lists with English equivalents are a routine that's more ideal for concrete and slower learners, right? I don't know. I could be wrong. I'm just throwing my thoughts out there so I can see if I'm on the right track or not.

Okay. Another thing I am worried about is: Can you overuse the principle of visuals in the classroom?

One of my colleagues really likes to have her students draw to help them remember words and their meanings in Spanish. She has the students go over the vocabulary section at the end of the chapter or from the previous chapters and write down words they don't know or can't remember. Then she has them draw pictures next to them to represent that word, something that will create a mental image for them to remember the word and its meaning in their own minds. She also sometimes has the students do "word-grams"— I think that's what they're called. It's an activity where the students take a piece of paper and create an image or representation of the word's meaning by how they draw the letters of the word. For example: For the word "circle," they would write the letters of the word "circle" to form a circle shape. For the word "wood," they would [please excuse the cacophony] take a piece of paper and make the letters of the word look like they were covered in bark or something like that to symbolize "wood" in their minds. For students who claim to know all the words in the vocab. section, she would tell them to create sentences with the words in context if they really know them that well. Another activity she does with vocabulary is have the students fold their paper into 4 sections. In the first section the students put the vocab. word. The second section is a definition in Spanish (she teaches only Spanish II classes when possible) or the part of speech if need be since their vocab. in Spanish isn't developed enough to make their own definitions in Spanish. The third section is the sample sentence with the vocab. word in context. The fourth section is where their drawing, usually stick figures ones since there isn't a lot of space in the boxes. What's neat about this activity is you can fold the paper different ways to cover up certain information. For example, you can cover it up so just the picture is showing and the students have to recall the word based off of the picture.

Sometimes I wonder if we as teachers get into doing so much drawing, crafts, and projects that we lose valuable learning time because the students are so focused and spend so much time on creating the products than on actually learning the words. I am probably thinking this because I am very analytical and concrete-orientated. I was never big into doing projects, posters, etc., as a student.

Daniel Hanson

High School Spanish Instructor/Teacher

Modesto, California, USA

Concerns about establishing meaning in the academic setting

Okay, here's my first post of concerns I have when I want to establish meaning for a list of vocabulary terms for a vocab. theme/topic/section/subsection:

1.       What are all the possibilities for establishing meaning in the academic setting?

[FYI:  I teach high school students in a public high school (with limited financial resources), ages  13 – 15 roughly, Spanish I on a traditional high school schedule.]

Here's a list of activities I can think of right now:

-          Use of visuals, such as black-and-white illustrations, images off the computer or off of the Internet, books, realia, etc. (which would need to be backed up with verbal prompting to get everyone what idea you are really trying to express with the new words and you would have some type of visual representation of the word in writing so they can see what the word is in written form)

-          Listing the vocab. and having the students write English translations on the side of each expression

-          Show or read sentences with the words "in context" and guide the students through to see if they can deduce their meaning effectively (what *you* the teacher want them to see)

-          Going alone with the previous technique, tell a story or a situation, using the vocab. words, and highlight those words while talking, trying to get the students to draw meaning from the context of the conversation

Now my mind is drawing a blank on what else I can do.

Daniel Hanson

High School Spanish Instructor/Teacher

Modesto, California, USA

What are the step processes in learning/teaching with regards to vocabulary development in the academic setting?

Recently, I started rereading [although sporadically— haven't gotten very far] the book, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, by H. Douglas Brown. I have been pondering in the back of my head the last day or so about the basic theory movements relating to language acquisition and how I might be able to apply them to my situation as a high school Spanish teacher, who teaches mostly Spanish I students, which students are generally 13-15 years of age. Anyway, my mind starts to wander a lot at the end of term, and I realized I don't have a good grasp of how vocabulary development should work in the academic setting. I think I came to this conclusion when I posted about how to teach all the grammar concepts and vocabulary themes in just 2-3 weeks time. While my brain was wandering, I came up with this schema:

1.       Establish meaning

2.       Reinforcement/Practice (goes from simple to more complex)

3.       Application in real-life situations

I came up with this process from my limited experience, my intuition, and maybe some from what I've read. What are your thoughts on this?

[I have concerns/questions about each of these stages of vocabulary development that I would like to discuss, but I'm afraid that might be too much to handle in one single post. So, I might break those concerns up into three different posts.]

If I've already asked these questions before, please let me know. Sometimes my thinking is very cyclic and I forget I've already talked or asked about stuff (especially right now when I'm scatterbrained at this time of year).

Thanks,

Daniel Hanson

High School Spanish Instructor/Teacher

Modesto, California, USA

Charlotte-
I have been not much more than a lurker here for quite a while. BY reading all
of your posts, I have to tell you that you are a very smart woman and I am sure
doing an exceptional job teaching these kids. I have been teaching middle school
Spanish 1 for 10 years now and would like to offer you a couple of words of
encouragement.

First of all, this is a very tough time of the year. Kids normally bomb second
term and then rebound in 3rd term. At least at my school this seems to be the
trend at both the high school.

Second, you did hit the nail on the head with the need to break down the
material into smaller chunks. I found that out my first year too. What seemed so
easy to me was just overwhelming to the students. Nothing says that you can not
go back and do it now. You mentioned that you have had a few snow days so does
that mean that the exams will be moved back a few days. Hopefully so!

Third, if you have access to computers (either while in school or if the
students have them at home), there are a couple of great websites to use for
practice. One is www.conjuguemos.com. I am using it with my middle school kids
to practice present tense. The best part is that if you enter your student's
names, they can actually take a quiz (or test) online and have the scores
reported to you. I always use it when teaching verbs. The other good website is
www.quia.com. It has a variety of activities made by other teachers. They are
listed by topic and textbook (I love this feature). Both websites ask for
contributions but it is not a requirement to use them. I have paid for a Quia
subscrition on my own because I use it so much. I plan to pay for conjugemos in
January because I use it a lot also.

Finally, I just want to tell you to hang in there. My first year of teaching was
rough. The kids knew that I was the new teacher and tried all kinds of stuff on
me. Now that I have been around a while I do not have the same problem. The
holiday break is coming and hopefully it will give you a chance to regroup and
rest. Then you can return in January all energized and ready to "preparalas para
los examenes". Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo.

-Kelly Ochoa

P.S. My user name on both Quia and Conjuguemos is sraochoa. Please feel free to
use any of my activities if they will help



--- In maestrosdeespanol@yahoogroups.com, Charlotte H Meyer <cherokeecfg@...>
wrote:
>
>
> This is my first year teaching and I just finished teaching chapter 2-2 of
Avancemos Level II to my second year students, which introduced reflexive verbs,
pensar + infinitive, and the present progressive.  I just gave the students the
first of the two grammar quizzes and they are totally bombing it in spite of the
fact that I even gave one last review just before I handed out the quiz.  Most
of the students are completely mixing up the reflexive with the pensar +
infinitive and the present progressive.  To them it all seems like one big mess.
They can't separate them in their minds.  If I had to do it over again, I would
quiz on the reflexive, then quiz on the pensar + infinitive, then quiz on the
present progressive.  But it's too late.  They have been exposed to all three
and it doesn't make sense to them.  Added to that we had two snow days plus an
unplanned early out (so effectively the afternoon classes had three snow days),
then a late start the following week.  The students complained that I didn't
give them enough time on everything, but then a minute later they were all
yapping while I was trying to teach.  I stopped the class and read them the riot
act.  I told them I couldn't teach a thing when they are talking and don't they
DARE try to blame me for their bad grades when they won't even listen to what I
am trying to say.  How do I salvage this situation just before the vacation? 
They have final exams the second week after they come back.
>
> Charlotte Meyer
> Spanish Teacher
> Japanese tutor
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft.
> http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222986/direct/01/
>

--- In maestrosdeespanol@yahoogroups.com, Charlotte H Meyer
<cherokeecfg@...> wrote:
> This is my first year teaching and I just finished teaching chapter
2-2 of Avancemos Level II to my second year students, which introduced
reflexive verbs, pensar + infinitive, and the present progressive. I
just gave the students the first of the two grammar quizzes and they are
totally bombing it in spite of the fact that I even gave one last review
just before I handed out the quiz. Most of the students are completely
mixing up the reflexive with the pensar + infinitive and the present
progressive. To them it all seems like one big mess. They can't separate
them in their minds. If I had to do it over again, I would quiz on the
reflexive, then quiz on the pensar + infinitive, then quiz on the
present progressive. But it's too late. They have been exposed to all
three and it doesn't make sense to them. Added to that we had two snow
days plus an unplanned early out (so effectively the afternoon classes
had three snow days), then a late start the following week.

[Okay, Charlotte. You made a mistake. That's okay. We all make them.
It's what we decide to do with them that really counts. You drill them
individually like others have pointed out and assess the grammatical
concepts separately. Then at some later time, when they take the end of
unit assessment, you can put all of those together—again, like
others on here have so graciously mention.]

> The students complained that I didn't give them enough time on
everything, but then a minute later they were all yapping while I was
trying to teach. I stopped the class and read them the riot act. I told
them I couldn't teach a thing when they are talking and don't they DARE
try to blame me for their bad grades when they won't even listen to what
I am trying to say.

[Okay. Here's what I really want to address. I think we as teachers tend
to feel guilty because our students are learning and aren't taking the
needed responsibility for their learning. I would read them the roid act
as well. How dare they ask for your help and complain about the
concepts/quizzes, and then start talking when you try to help them even
further! This is a possible sign that they don't take you or the class
seriously. My first year teaching Spanish II, we do a month of review
because that is how our textbook is set up. Well, I could see the
students were not paying attention or taking the review seriously. So, I
gave them the chapter test the next day and then move onto the regular
chapters. They didn't score too well, but they learned to pay more
attention when going over stuff. I feel strongly about making students
aware and responsible for their own learning. Lots of students want to
place everything on the teacher. If they don't do the homework or the
classwork, they count on the system or the teacher to accept late work
or pass them or do have some future extra credit assignment. They except
mommy and daddy to fix it for them. They figure the teacher will reteach
the material until they get it. I believe we as teachers should try to
meet the diverse learning needs in our classrooms. HOWEVER, at the same
time, we can't be everyone to everybody. We need our insanity outside of
the workplace. Students, especially at the high school level, need a
wake-up call about their learning. People are going to sit around a
pamper to them. Some students will be going off to college where they
will not be getting such treatment, nor in the workplace. They need to
have initiative, etc. Those are important qualities. I found out
recently that at my school they re-instated the Wednesday administrative
hour detention in the cafeterias after we were told last year we weren't
going to do that because of lack of funds, etc. Well, it got re-instated
because some students wouldn't serve their teacher detention, then they
would get assigned Saturday School, wouldn't attend Saturday School and
then would get suspended and wouldn't care. Thus, they would be up for
expulsion after reaching the 10 day limit for suspensions. So, they put
the administrative detention back into play. Where's the kid's
responsibility in all of this? Giving them more tries isn't going to
solve the problem. Anyway, sorry for the rant.]



Daniel Hanson

High School Spanish Instructor/Teacher

Modesto, California, USA