Spanish
I studied Spanish in high school, and went on to complete a minor from the University of Calgary in 2008. I travelled for one month through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, when my life was greatly enriched by hearing many personal stories from locals and learning about the history of these countries. I hope to travel to Peru and Spain in the future.
I have I taught Spanish 7, 8 and 9 (6-year program) and Spanish 20 and 30 (3-year program).
I came midway through the year into my junior high classes, and my predecessor had developed a system that was working well for her and her students. I quickly found that ¡Buen Viaje! took more of an immersion approach that did not work well for me nor for the students, since I had only 40 minutes classes 2-3 times a week with them, and their retention rate was low. I also found that, despite it being recommended by Alberta Education as a resource, the sequencing of the book was out of sync with the curriculum, making it awkward to scaffold. As a result, I changed my approach to build more meta-linguistic awareness, to help them understand the fundamental rules associated with such things as gender agreement and verb conjugation patterns, and scaffolded practice to limit exposure to words and grammatical structures they hadn't been taught. As a result, my students are picking up on patterns and basics are becoming more second-nature, whereas they had been a major struggle previously.
The Spanish 20 and 30 ADLC courses provided an amazing foundation for teaching, as each module clearly aligned with the curriculum and met multiple outcomes from each focus area in a seamless and interesting way. I love that this resource also connected me with other online resources that I could use in the future. My Spanish 30 students are a highly motivated bunch, and I've been fortunate to have a small enough group to include lots of verbal assessments, but have also used the approach of having them produce audio recordings, which could be used with a larger class that doesn't permit time for regular one-on-one face-to-face conversations. Almost all of my students are in grade 10 and wish that there was a course after Spanish 30 that they could take with me. I would love the chance to explore more Spanish stories, films, artwork, and Spanish and Latin American history and culture with them, and have encouraged them to pursue such things in their university education.
This year (2015), I have rebuilt my junior high classes based on the ADLC model and am using Google Apps for Ed as my infrastructure. It's a great way to include reading, listening, viewing, writing, speaking, and representing through language and culture, and to make such things accessible 24/7 so that kids can review and work at a pace that suits them.
I have I taught Spanish 7, 8 and 9 (6-year program) and Spanish 20 and 30 (3-year program).
I came midway through the year into my junior high classes, and my predecessor had developed a system that was working well for her and her students. I quickly found that ¡Buen Viaje! took more of an immersion approach that did not work well for me nor for the students, since I had only 40 minutes classes 2-3 times a week with them, and their retention rate was low. I also found that, despite it being recommended by Alberta Education as a resource, the sequencing of the book was out of sync with the curriculum, making it awkward to scaffold. As a result, I changed my approach to build more meta-linguistic awareness, to help them understand the fundamental rules associated with such things as gender agreement and verb conjugation patterns, and scaffolded practice to limit exposure to words and grammatical structures they hadn't been taught. As a result, my students are picking up on patterns and basics are becoming more second-nature, whereas they had been a major struggle previously.
The Spanish 20 and 30 ADLC courses provided an amazing foundation for teaching, as each module clearly aligned with the curriculum and met multiple outcomes from each focus area in a seamless and interesting way. I love that this resource also connected me with other online resources that I could use in the future. My Spanish 30 students are a highly motivated bunch, and I've been fortunate to have a small enough group to include lots of verbal assessments, but have also used the approach of having them produce audio recordings, which could be used with a larger class that doesn't permit time for regular one-on-one face-to-face conversations. Almost all of my students are in grade 10 and wish that there was a course after Spanish 30 that they could take with me. I would love the chance to explore more Spanish stories, films, artwork, and Spanish and Latin American history and culture with them, and have encouraged them to pursue such things in their university education.
This year (2015), I have rebuilt my junior high classes based on the ADLC model and am using Google Apps for Ed as my infrastructure. It's a great way to include reading, listening, viewing, writing, speaking, and representing through language and culture, and to make such things accessible 24/7 so that kids can review and work at a pace that suits them.