Español con Emily

  2 Minute Read I teach a unit practicing the Past tenses with “Robo en la noche”, by Kristy Placido. It’s also available in Present tense, but when it first came out, it was only in Past tense! It’s one of my students’ favorite books we’ve read, among Agentes secretos y el mural de Picasso, Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto, and La Llorona de Mazatlán. As a way to introduce the novel, I have students complete a “virtual field trip” of Costa Rica, to get familiar with the country.  With this Costa Rica Digital Webquest , students research the following (using the links provided): Where the city or landmark is located What is it? What’s the population? Other interesting facts At the end, they find an interesting place or landmark in Costa Rica and write some interesting facts about it I have 2 versions, all English, or all Spanish, so you can choose which one to assign to students based on their level.  How I Use this Webquest: I give students a class period (45 minutes) to fill out

  2 Minute Read No-Prep Spanish Sub Plans that work for Middle and High School Spanish are super important when you have to call in sick the night or morning before school! What’s tricky about being a Spanish teacher, is that it’s pretty rare that fellow coworkers or substitutes can teach Spanish while we’re gone. Therefore, over the years, I’ve needed to have a few sets of emergency sub plans ready to go at a moment’s notice → and that means something digital! Whether you call them webquests or virtual field trips, the idea is the same –students will discover information in an interactive way with embedded links that take them to websites with reliable information. Have you ever spent a bunch of time leaving detailed sub plans with copies to print, and the sub doesn’t actually read your directions? 🤦‍♀️ I’ve been there! It’s super frustrating, and ends up feeling like your time was wasted, especially when you should’ve been resting up or taking care of your kids, instead of writing

  3 Minute Read Often as teachers, we think learning Past Participles is easy in Spanish! I think textbooks agree, because I have several, and there’s barely more than a page of content that explains Past Participles - and very little practice activities. This led me to creating my own resources .  It’s a 4 day mini-unit (45 minute periods) that sets students up for successfully learning the Present Perfect or Past Perfect tense. Here’s a quick summary of how I teach Past Participles in 4 days: Students take notes on Regular Spanish Past Participles They will practice with activities such as a Crossword , Game Board group activity, Beat the Clock conjugation game, & an exit ticket.  I love using Google Forms for fast grading that gives me instant data! Students take notes on Irregular Spanish Past Participles, and how Past Participles are used as adjectives. Bellringer Warm-Up Activity: Students review common errors from the Exit Ticket The students will practice the Irregular

Do you sometimes feel like a walking dictionary in your Spanish class? Even with all of the resources students have at their fingertips, (ahem,🥴 Google Translate!) I still get students of all levels asking me to translate the same words time after time! That’s why years ago, I created sets of Printable Posters organized in categories, and I’ve added to them over the years as I started to notice repeat requests for words that weren’t on my posters.  These Posters Are Perfect For: Helping students retain the meaning of the words  Rather than them relying on me or Google Translate to tell them the word, (where it’s in one ear, and out the other) they’re constantly referencing these posters – and trust me, it really does lead to retention! If certain words are on a test, I make a point to cover them up. Sometimes students have told me, just looking up at the covered posters, helps them remember! I’d call that a win towards them retaining! Pushing students towards higher proficiency! Did