Question task cards are an engaging and interactive teaching tool that can enhance classroom participation and facilitate learning. Question task cards consist of a series of questions related to a specific topic or subject and are designed to promote critical thinking and encourage students to actively participate in classroom discussions. Here's how you can use question task cards with your classes:
By incorporating question task cards into your teaching repertoire, you can promote active learning, foster critical thinking, and encourage meaningful discussions among your students. These task cards can be customized to suit various subjects and grade levels, making them a versatile tool for your classroom. Remember to provide clear guidelines for respectful and inclusive discussions, ensuring that every student has an opportunity to contribute and learn from their peers. With question task cards, you can create an interactive and dynamic learning environment that supports your students' growth and understanding. If you would like to try your hand at task cards, I have a few sets in my TPT Store. You can find the set seen below HERE. Please let me know if you have any questions about task cards. I'd also love to know how you use them with your classes!
0 Comments
Reading is an essential component of language learning, and Spanish is no exception. Incorporating reading into your Spanish classes can help your students develop their vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension skills while also exposing them to the culture and history of Spanish-speaking countries. Here are some tips for using reading in your Spanish classes:
If you are looking for short readings for your students, I have many in my TPT store HERE. If you're looking for a specific topic, please ask and I'll help you find what you need! I have an idea! Ok, it's not just my idea. Sra. Smiley and I collaborated on this one :)
I just took a job for next year teaching 8th grade Spanish 1 (for high school credit) in California. (insert moans from my husband for "having" to move back to Cali here). Sra. Smiley and I were discussing ideas to collaborate next year since we will teach the same grade level! Woohoo! We came up with having our alter egos, Jim and Bob, be pen pals with each others classes. IF you really want to know the story of Jim and Bob, e-mail me and I'll fill you in :) I created an Instagram account last night for Jim and added 12 photos. I will add more once I get started with my students. Actually, we will add them together. My thought is to have them take photos of our school, community, etc. and then I'll add Jim to the photo and post it so Bob's students (and yours) can see! Then together we will write a caption in Spanish to add to the photo. Bob (and yours) will comment on the post collectively. This morning, I created a slideshow to introduce my students to Jim. We will go through the first 12 posts so they can get the hang of it. I mean, they need to know who their alter ego is going to be before we can collectively begin to post on JIm's instagram, right? I have included in this slideshow screenshots of all of Jim's posts as well as questions and what/how to respond to each post. I've also included printable Instagram templates so they can each create their own Instagram too. Even if you don't choose to make your own Instagram account, you can still follow along with your students and read what Jim is up to! I'm sure this will evolve but this is what I have so far! I'd love for you to also be able to use Jim's profile with your students too. Plus, if you have any ideas, please share! For now, please follow Jim and follow along with the fun! Links: Jim's Instagram profile Google Slideshow Can you believe it's March already? Time has flown by this year! I just returned from Hawaii where I visited with my son. He is stationed there with the Marines. He absolutely hit the jackpot. The base is beautiful! He also got married while I was visiting. It was wonderful spending time with him and his new bride. Now, it's back to reality...and we've had a cold, windy winter in Arizona. I'm not exactly looking forward to the summer heat but I am looking forward to sunshine!
I received some bad news. The online school I was teaching for laid off 25% of their staff- including me. So I'm currently not teaching for the first time in 26 years!! I am, however, applying to teaching jobs. I decided now is the time to try international teaching. I applied to several positions over this weekend and I'm really hoping I get a call! If you know anything about teaching internationally, please let me know! I'd love to know all the tricks and tips to finding the perfect position. In the meanwhile, I created a FREEBIE for you! It's a simple, fun activity for you to use to get your students learning a few new vocabulary terms. Simply print and pass out to students. The object is for them to turn the object into something different. They draw/color the new object and then write what the object is on the line above. The best part is having students share their creations. They need to share with the class in Spanish (of course). For more language practice, you can extend this by asking questions about the object. You could also turn this into a fun game - twenty questions style. Have the student share their new object with the class without stating what it is. The class must ask questions to guess what it is now. Anyhow, just a simple activity for those long days between now and Spring Break. You can find it HERE. Have a wonderful March! Jen The TPT Sitewide Sale will be here February 7 & 8...just in time for Valentine's Day! This is the perfect time to pick up those stories, games, activities, and projects for your classes. Everything in my store will be 25% off if you use code FEBSALE23.
Before the sale, be sure to go to TPT and leave feedback on any recent purchases. By simply writing a review of a purchased product, you will receive credits that you can use towards any future purchases. Your feedback helps TPT Creators improve their products. It's a win-win!! By using the code and credits you can save big on your purchases during the sale! However, you can save even more by purchasing bundles. Most bundles can already save you 15-25%. By purchasing bundles during the sale, you'll save even more! If you already own a product within a bundle, and you've purchased it within a year, you can contact TPT Customer Service and they will refund you for the item! It's another win-win!! My TPT wishlist is full of new clipart to make even more great products for you! Also, if there's a product you'd love to have and just don't have the time to create it yourself, please let me know. I do custom work as well. Happy shopping! I am SO excited to share this with you! It's been a work in progress for a while now. Initially my idea was to create a "Word of the Day" activity. My online students need to really be intentional with their learning so I thought a "Word of the Day" would be the hook I needed. WELL...not so much. I found that it wasn't enough practice with the vocabulary. So now I'm introducing "Word of the Week"! This can be used as a warm-up activity or even a time filler at the end of class. It's a quick way to help your students learn new words. NEW VOCABULARY that they may not otherwise learn. Like toilet. We teach bathroom...but how many of your students know the word toilet? Or handcuffs. I mean you never know...they may need to know that one day! Or to squat. We teach sit and stand but do your kiddos know to squat? Well, they will now! I created two sets of words and activities. I called them Set 1 and Set 2 but honestly you can do Set 2 before Set 1. My PowerPoint presentation was too large so I split them in 2. Just think of them as a set for each semester! Each set has 20 words and 20 weeks' worth of activities. I created an activity for each day of the week. If you don't meet every day, you could certainly skip some of the activities. You could also stretch the "Word of the Week" into two weeks. The activities are designed to be done quickly (as in a warm-up activity). Day 1: Show your students the word. They will write what theyTHINK the word means. It's probably a guess. Maybe the word looks like another word or reminds them of something? Day 2: Students learn what part of speech the word is, the definition and also see an example sentence. You could stretch this by comparing what it really means to what they thought it meant. Day 3: Students write their own original sentence with the word. Day 4: Students write a list of words that the "Word of the Week" reminds them of. For example, if the word is ladrillo, they could write casa, los tres cerditos, una cerca (I live in Arizona where all fences are made of bricks.) Day 5: Students will draw a picture that represents the word. All of the above can be done on the included printable worksheet (or in your students' notebooks). It's up to you! I am teaching 100% online now so I don't do passwords anymore but you could use the "Word of the Week" as your password to enter the classroom. I used to LOVE using these. If you haven't heard of passwords, you must try it! I believe Bryce Hedstrom came up with the idea. He wrote a book called "What's the Password?" where he describes this technique in detail. You can read more about this on Bryce Hedstrom's website HERE. I think this is going to be super amazing!! I'm already dreaming about doing a "Phrase of the Week" slide deck next! If you are interested in this activity, you can find the sets in my TPT store: Let me know what you think! If you have any ideas, I'd love to brainstorm with you. Shoot me an email! ([email protected]) Sometimes I miss living in the midwest. At least, I miss it until the snow falls. Then I'm happy I'm in Arizona. Snow is NOT my thing. It's still 100 degrees here (TOO hot) and I'm missing apple cider , doughnuts and the leaves changing colors. I do have a palm tree and it is just not the same thing.
While dreaming about fall (real fall), I wrote two stories that your students will enjoy! The first is called El día de otoño perfecto. It follows a cute squirrel as he collects different color leaves. It's adorable. You can find it in my Teachers Pay Teachers store or just click HERE. The second story is my gift to you. The story is called El fantasma simpático. It's about a ghost named Humberto. Humberto has a big problem with making friends. You'll have to download the story to find out what happens! You can also find this story in my TPT store (or HERE). I would also really appreciate a review of the story after you read it! I hope you enjoy the stories...and FALL! Jen I know I've been absent for a while but I have some big, BIG news! I wrote a reader! I love using comprehensible readers in my classroom so I wrote my own! Plus, my husband has been telling me I should be an author for years so I thought I'd give it a try! Turns out, I love it!! Comprehensible readers are magic. They motivate students, help students strengthen their Spanish vocabulary and grammar, enrich their cultural knowledge and build confidence. Magic, I tell you. Reading has a profound impact on language acquisition. However, there is one caveat. You must provide texts that are comprehensible to your students. You can find a number of comprehensible novels online (Wayside Publishing, Amazon, Teacher's Discovery, and TPRS Books. I have a library full of these readers and we use them for Free Voluntary Reading almost daily. Teaching a comprehensible novel as a unit is another ballgame. I don't know about you but I have class sizes of 40+ students. Teaching with a novel can get expensive! You have to provide each student with their own copy of the novel. Yes, you have to. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "I'll just photocopy the book". Well, that's illegal. You legally have to provide each student with their own copy of the novel. Maybe you're luckier than I am but I've never been at a school that had a budget that would allow me to purchase 40+ copies of a novel ($250+ for a class set). I did, however, have some success begging strangers on Twitter with #clearthelist. I'm not going to lie. I would love to write readers to sell on the above mentioned websites. It would pretty much be a dream job for me but for now, I'm writing to help out teachers just like myself who have a very limited budget (and who are probably buying curriculum and other classroom necessities out of their own pocketbook). With my new novel, you can make as many copies as you need for your students AND I included the ancillary activities in the bundle (instead of the usual $20 to $60 additional from the big publishing companies). Let's talk about teaching a novel as a unit before we get into my latest and greatest product. The best part of teaching a novel is that you can do what works for you. I never teach a novel the same way twice. I like to start by preparing my students to read the novel. If the novel is about a a particular country, we will start with a country study. If it's about an animal, we will learn everything we can about the animal before we start reading. Then I'll go chapter by chapter through the novel. There are so many ways you can go through each chapter with your students. I like to begin with introducing any new or difficult vocabulary from the chapter. I use PQA (personalized questions and answers) to practice the new vocabulary and to connect students to the material they are about to read (without them knowing what they will be reading yet). Next, we will read the chapter. Reading looks different for each chapter. My students love Kindergarten reading. I think they really just like to sit on the floor but whatever gets them engaged in the reading, I'm all for! For Kindergarten reading you simply read the book to your students like a Kindergarten teacher would. Use different voices...they love that! Make sure you go slow and ask questions as you read. The character has a dog...great ask your students who has a dog. Ask them to predict what will happen next. Keep it slow, simple and fun. Other days I will have the students read the chapter silently at their desks. I'll wander the room and make sure they are reading and ask questions to those students who I know struggle a bit. Some days who do popcorn reading where one student reads and then randomly stops and chooses someone else to continue reading. This keeps them on their toes! I do a lot of partner reading too. One student reads a paragraph in Spanish. The partner translates it to English and back and forth. Honestly, the possibilities are endless. After reading the chapter, I like to do an extension activity such as a game (Gimkit, Quizlet, Blooket, Running Dictation, etc), worksheet, drawing, acting out the chapter, or even a formative assessment. The activity should reinforce what the student's read in the chapter. Depending on the novel, we read about one chapter per day. If the chapters are short, we may do two. This means a novel is completed within 2-3 weeks. After finishing the novel, I do a project or assessment that shows what the students have learned. You could do a speaking assessment here too but I usually stick to a written project. Let's get back to my new novel. Your students will love it! It will take them to...AFRICA. Yes, I know. Not a Spanish speaking place but I did tie into Equatorial Guinea a bit in Chapter 1 before the main character heads off on a safari! My students love animals so it just made sense to write about all of the animals the character encounters while on a safari in Nairobi, Kenya. It's a fun story that is totally school appropriate (no magic, holidays, etc.) for all students. It's perfect for late Spanish 1 or Spanish 2 students. I even included a glossary with every single word that is in the novel. For me this is super important as I don't want the kids to have any reason at all to go to the internet to look up a word. Nope. That never leads to anything good! So what will you get if you decide to purchase the novel? Of course, you will receive a PDF of the novel. You are free to print as many copies as you need for your students (that alone will save you $$$). Additionally, you will receive an illustrated Google slideshow shortened version of the story to help build suspense! There are also at least 2 documents for each Chapter and pre and post reading activities! For each chapter there is a Google Slideshow that includes the text of the chapter and several additional slides that delve deeper into the topic of that chapter. There is also a PDF printable activity for each chapter. Each of the 18 chapters has a unique activity. There are games, partner activities, writing activities, drawing, etc. I'm super excited by these activities. Also, these are wonderful activities that with just a little tweaking can be adapted to use with other readings! As I mentioned, there are pre and post reading activities as well. I tried to think of everything you'd need! If you purchase and have any ideas on what I can add to improve it, please let me know!! I'm happy to add to the unit too! (e-mail me at [email protected]) If you'd like to take a look, you can find Samuel y su aventura de verano in my TPT store HERE. Happy Reading!! Jen When I was a kid, I loved to flip through the JCPenney catalog. I would circle everything that I wanted....which was basically the entire catalog. Well, now I've created my own catalog so I kind of feel like I've come full circle.
I consider myself quite organized. I have color coded my Google Drive and have everything in neat little folders. But lately, I haven't been able to find what I want as quickly as I'd like. I find myself sitting there thinking "Didn't I write a story using the verb poder? What did I title that story?" and then spending twenty minutes searching for it. It must be because I'm turning 50 this summer. My brain is mush. So to solve my problem, I started organizing everything. Then, I thought, if I can't find things, you probably can't find my things either! DUH! So I created the catalog for all of us. You can search the catalog in two ways. I may add another later but for now. It's two. The first way is by grammatical focus. I have in the grammar focus in light green. Under each header, I have listed everything in my store that has that focus. So let's say, for example, you are teaching the verb Gustar. You'd simply scroll down to Gustar and there you will see everything I have using that verb. There are two columns. The first tells you what that item is: a story, activity, project, writing, lesson, game. The second column has the name of the item and it is linked to the item in my TPT store so you can click and see if it's what you're looking for. The second way to search is by Spanish Speaking country. So if you're looking for food from Spain, simply scroll down to Spain and see what I have! The only problem I had was that a lot of products focused on South America or another region, so I just put all of those at the bottom. I noticed that I like to write a lot of present tense stories (you'll see when you peak in the catalog...holy cow). I also have a lot of items focused on Spain. I mean that makes sense...I do LOVE Spain. This has shown me where I need to create more products so keep your eyes open for what's to come. I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me already! Click HERE to view the catalog! I am so beyond excited about these road trips! I just added a new one this week! They can be purchased as a bundle of 4 (which I may add to in the future) or individually. The countries available are Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Spain.
Let me tell you about this super fun product. I started with Mexico because I was trying to convince my husband that we should RV through Mexico. He laughed and told me to bring him a plan. While I was researching for the plan, I had the idea to take my students on the RV trip with me! Brilliant! The idea is that your students will virtually travel through each of the countries with a character. Each slideshow gives your students the option to visit 8 different cities/regions in each of the countries. Your students can choose which cities to visit. They will be given some background on each city and then asked to complete very specific tasks about that city. Depending on the city, they may view a YouTube video or visit a website. They will then answer questions that are specific to that topic. Students will search for hotels or RV parks, restaurants, public transportation, cultural activities, museums and more! Each product contains both a Google Slideshow and a PDF document. The Google Slideshow is interactive in that the students read the "story" and then choose where they want to visit. Each slide is linked. While students can type their answers to the research questions on the Google Slideshow, you can also choose to have them write their answers on the printable PDF document. I teach online. I gave each student access to the Slideshow. I then uploaded the PDF into Canvas (our LMS) and had the students use the annotation tool to write their answers directly on the document. Having them answer on the PDF made it much quicker to grade. This product is best for students in late Spanish 1 or Spanish 2. I teach middle and high school Spanish and it worked perfectly for all students between 6th and 11th grade! This was so fun to create! I now want to travel to each of these places! I also want to be a travel coordinator now! Let me know if you have any questions about these virtual trips! They are so much fun! |