The art and craft of teaching with technology
It is no mystery that the theme of this year has been: flexibility. This year I was forced to learn how to not only teach online, but teach a language online asynchronously. I have gained confidence in not only delivering instruction but using digital tools to enhance learning for my students during this challenging time.
These are a few activities I designed that could be implemented in comprehensive distance learning, hybrid learning, and yes, even a completely asynchronous environment.
In my 7th grade Introduction to Spanish class this year, I did an activity called “Persona especial” or “special person” which is a unit centered on talking about ourselves and others. This activity gives students essential first and third person verb forms and allows myself to get to know my students and their lives a little bit better.
“Persona especial” consists of 10 different questions that students learn how to answer about themselves and another special person. Using Book Creator, I had the idea of creating a classroom community book that allows students to answer those 10 questions and compile them into a class book for us to learn more about each other. Students have creative freedom with the pages and answer the prompt in Spanish with a sentence and an image that we can all flip through an enjoy.
In this example, I filled out the pages with an example for myself and a template design for students to fill out as well using the prompts of: “I am…” “Do you have a pet? and “What do you like to do?” which are 3 out of the 10 questions we learn. Then, we can compile the pages together and students can share their pages with the class!
This year I have taught Introduction to Spanish and Spanish 1 completely asynchronously. It is no mystery that teaching 7th and 8th graders a new language in itself is a challenge. Throwing the asynchronous element in there made it feel almost impossible. When I first entered my placement, my CT nor I, knew the best plan of action. How were we going to create instruction that was engaging, meaningful, and (especially) differentiated for students that we were going to have little to no contact with. That is where our saving grace came in: EdPuzzle.com.
Through EdPuzzle I was able to provide instruction in both classes in a way that was engaging and allowed me to do formative assessment that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to do so easily. It kept track of the students who were completing the comprehension questions and I eventually learned to enjoy being in front of the camera.
This specific lesson is focused on reading and reading comprehension in Spanish. I really wanted Spanish 1 students to read a short novel in Spanish and work on this skill before entering Spanish 2 in high school which would be more focused on producing language. EdPuzzle was the best option to provide instruction for this novel and through months of trial and error I am confident I found the best method of instruction for my students.
For each chapter of the book I created two different EdPuzzle videos- an independent reading, where students read and answered the comprehension questions themselves, and a supported option, where there was more explicit focus on things like grammar and more scaffolding to support the students who may need extra help with their literacy skills including “circling” which is a comprehensible input methodology. This allowed me to create videos that were more specific to my students needs while still being completely asynchronous.
Each week students selected the video that best fit their needs and completed the same comprehension questions about their novel “Brandon Brown quiere un perro”. The success rate with this method was higher than I had seen all year due to the different supports I was able to provide. Was it more work? Oh, yeah. Was it worth it for my students and their language acquisition? 100%.
This activity using Google MyMaps is focused on the capitals of Spanish speaking countries. This is ideally for an upper level Spanish class as they will be making observations about the countries capital and reporting to the class about their “day” in the city.
Students will be asked to select the capital of a Spanish speaking country where they will be spending their ideal day. They will use Google MyMaps to report on what they saw in their capital and show us exactly where they went. They will report on historical landmarks, architecture, art, and whatever else they find key to experiencing a day in the life in their capital by using MyMaps to take us on their virtual tour.
The goal of this unit is to immerse students in Spanish speaking countries in the most authentic way possible. Student will be able to explore the differences in architecture and historic sites compared to the United States by using MyMaps to take them on a tour for a day. They will be able to add photos of their landmarks and show us where they went and what they learned in an interactive way and could explore others work by using a map for the whole class.
This lesson is intended for Spanish 3 students to guide their own learning about the environment and conservation efforts of different Spanish speaking countries. Students are expected to use the Google Form to: select a country of interest, read the corresponding article, use the form to summarize, review vocabulary, and give me feedback, and then report to the class about the article the next day in small groups.
1.) Enter your information into the Google Form.
2.) Select the country you would like to learn about. You are only reading ONE article.
3.) Read the article provided for your selected country.
4.) Follow the prompts in the Google Form.
5.) Come prepared to work with a small group in class to share about what you learned and teach others about your country!
My goals for this lesson include:
The Google Form helps accomplish this by giving students the choice of what they would like to read and being able to assign specific vocabulary comprehension questions and to hold students accountable for their reading.
The Google form automatically corrects their vocabulary comprehension and allows me to gain feedback on the articles I am assigning as well.
¿Qué estás dibujando? or “What are you drawing?” is an information gap activity I developed to utilize Google Drawings in the World Language classroom. This activity would involve pairs of students creating images of various vocabulary words from a unit and having their partner guess what they are drawing. This activity could be used in any world language class as a fun way to engage students in vocabulary practice.
1.) Students will be grouped into pairs.
2.) Students will receive a list of vocabulary words from their current unit.
3.) Student 1 will be using Google drawings to create a visual representation of the vocabulary word while Student 2 guesses what it is while they are drawing, Student 1 can provide details as they draw but all communication must be in Spanish!
4.) Once the vocabulary word is guessed students will trade roles and repeat.
Here is the worst drawing of a house ever seen:
The student would guess “una casa” and then switch roles for the next vocabulary word.
This Jamboard activity is using a storyboard with pictures provided for students to allow them to form their own stories in Spanish. Students are given images and asked to use vocabulary words from their current unit to write captions for the pictures and create a cohesive story. Students would work in teams on different Jamboard slides and then share their unique story with the class. This is an activity I would do with mid-level Spanish students (Spanish 1 and 2).
1.) With your assigned group, examine the photos provided on your storyboard Jamboard.
2.) Using all of the vocabulary words from the word bank, write full sentences to create a caption for each image using the text box feature on Jamboard.
3.) Create a cohesive story with your group by captioning each picture.
4.) Be prepared to share your story with the class so we can compare and contrast our different stories that we made with the same images.
The main goal for this lesson is for students to begin crafting their own Spanish sentences and stories using the vocabulary provided and be able to create a cohesive story as a team. This is a low stakes way for students to begin writing creatively in Spanish and showing their knowledge of the language. Students would be encouraged to focus on meaning rather than perfect grammatical accuracy.
Whether it wakes you up early or keeps you up late, whether you swipe left or find a date, whether you learn something new or fall for click bait, whether you take a selfie or share what you just ate, whether you are getting a ticket or directions to the interstate, whether you are gaming alone or with a mate, whether you scroll or give Twitter an update, whether you type or have Siri dictate, whether my students do their work or use Google translate, a world of technology awaits.
I am about as embarrassed of this poem as I am about how much time I spend on Twitter: very. But, it does speak some truth. I use technology for everything. I mean everything. Technology is how I feel safe as a woman walking alone, it is how I have any idea how to get where I am going, and it is how I stay connected to so many people in my life that I wouldn’t usually be able to.
Technology does in fact:
And we all know that the list continues farther than we can all possibly imagine. Basically, as much as I do not like it and wish I lived in a world without technology where I just frolicked through a field and ate fruit all day, technology really helps me get through the day and I anxiously await what it brings into our lives next.
This activity is something I do with my students every week. This is called a picture talk. It is a methodology of CI (Comprehensible Input) language teaching and revolves around students looking at images and coming up with stories using the vocabulary from that lesson/week/unit.
Students use their Spanish to craft stories from the images they are seeing as a class. These images are ones that would be used from a lesson including: adjectives, clothing, etc. The students look at these images while the teacher facilitates the story asking students questions about what they are seeing and circling important vocabulary. For example:
Teacher: ¿El perro de esta foto lleva gafas? ¿Sí o no?
Students: Si, el perro lleva gafas.
T: ¿Y por qué lleva gafas el perro?
S: Las necesita para hacer su tarea.
And so on and so forth until they have created a story for each dog. This also allows the teacher to compare the photos and receive student feedback.
Students decide the names, plots, settings etc. of the stories and then participate in a “Write and Discuss” where they write out the story in their own Spanish.
Understanding the cultural differences between Spanish-speaking countries is a key part of cultural competency. Cultural competency is one of the standards for Spanish language classes and a great way to showcase different cultures is to compare and contrast common aspects of the cultures. This example shows two classic plate of food- 1 from Peru and 1 from Mexico. This activity can be done with any aspect of two different Spanish speaking countries and is easy to embed into the vocabulary they are already using.
Students discuss with partners the similarities and differences they see between the two pictures shown. They use vocabulary such as comparatives and food related words.
They then share with the class, in Spanish, the differences and similarities they had noticed.
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Photo by Rebecca Orlov | Orlov Design Co on Unsplash
Photo by Laurentiu Morariu on Unsplash
I had the full intention of posting things other than wiener dog content. That intention was not successful. Here I present Cierra’s Smiles aka the best mini daschund content I could compile. Yes, most of it is my dog. Yes, he is my entire camera roll. Yes, I think you should love him as much as I do.
In conclusion, we love Buster.
