La Clase

The classroom is a space for learning. Learning happens in many ways and a teacher is constantly trying to get to every child: How does this boy/girl learn best? What activities should we do? How do I make sure that they learn to speak/to write/to read in Spanish? How do I make connections with the curriculum in their other classrooms? How do I teach culture in the target language? These are all the questions that are behind the configuration of the Spanish classroom as a physical space. Take a look at the slideshow to your right. Do you like the new rug? The children LOVE it and so do I!

¡¡Más y más libros!!

It is not often that when I read books (and students them act out) the children give a standing ovation, literally! These books got that "exclusive" treatment, check them out:

El Día de los Muertos

One more year we have been learning about the Mexican celebration of The Day of the Dead. Many children were already familiar with it and those who didn't know anything were fascinated to learn that it is not a scary, but a happy celebration. Families and friends get together and honor the relatives who passed away by building altars and visiting and decorating their graves. From November 1 to 4 you can go to Navy Pier and experience this celebration first hand, well the next closest thing after traveling to Mexico and seeing for yourself... For more information click on the link under "events".

More books!!

This week we read these books in class (k and 1st). They are great books for Spanish class because many children are already familiar with them and they are repetitive, they follow a pattern so that by the 3rd page or so they are participating in the story. Oso Pardo stresses animals and colors. Buenas noches, luna stresses greeting and familiar objects. The "problem" is...many wanted to go to sleep afterward...

Hispanic Heritage Month

From September 15 till October 15 we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. We have talked about the movements of independence in class: how the conquistadors conquered the New World and how the Spanish King ruled over the colonies. Mexico is the first country to declare its independence from Spain. The fifth graders are completing a scavenger hunt due on the first day of class after October 18th. Please, assist your child with this project if he/she needs help. For a description of the project, click here.

¡¡Bienvenidos!!

Welcome back!!
We had a great first day of school today and we are ready to have another great year!! I hope you all had a relaxing summer. I visited my family in Spain and it was wonderful to spend time with my parents, brother, uncles, aunts, and my cousin's new baby, Paula.
Here is picture of my hometown's Plaza.

More books

We have read these three books in the past three weeks. They are easy to understand and re-create. If you have a chance to check them out at the library the children would love them!

¡Música!

There is nothing like music to learn vocabulary. When we associate new words with rhythms and movement we have the perfect combination. The students LOVE the song La canción de las frutas, from the book/CD "Music that teaches Spanish" by Patti Lozano. For the lyrics, click here

Language Acquisition and other topics...

I had some very interesting conversations with some interested people about Language Acquisition. For more information you can click here and read an article from NCLRC (National Capital Language Resource Center), a non profit organization located in Washington DC, funded by the Department of Education, and led by Georgetown University, The George Washington University,and the Center for Applied Linguistics.

All we do in class is oriented toward that goal. Check out the new projects on the right side: Dinosaurios (2nd grade), Animales del Océano (3rd grade) and packing for Venezuela (4th grade).

Some books

Here are three books that the children absolutely loved. La Vaca que decía OINK demonstrates to young children the advantages of speaking an additional language!

What we do...

What we do in the Foreign language Elementary School (FLES) program is oriented towards language acquisition. Specifically, second language acquisition (SLA), since their primary language, for most of the children, is English. The way children acquire a second language is somehow similar to the way they acquire their native language. The process begins, in most cases, with a “silent period”, in which they speak very little. Some children reject hearing/listening to the foreign language because it is “incomprehensible”. That is what happens when some children complain about “I don’t understand a word you are saying” o “Could you say it in English?” However, these “silent learners” are rehearsing important “chunks” of information. The first words or phrases are then used in one or different situations and become “attached”. A handful of words and phrases are used to accomplish basic purposes. The most direct source of information in the classroom is the teacher and other authentic materials we work with. This is the “input”. Classroom management and differentiation is extremely important so that this input can reach everyone. When students process the input in a way that leads to learning we call it “intake”. The amount and quality of input the children receive is the most important factor affecting their learning, but it has to be at a level comprehensible to them. The input should be just beyond what the learner can fully understand; it is comprehensible, but not 100%. And that is OK!! Another factor is the use of the language in interaction, that is how the students generate new contexts for words and new combinations. The more exposure, the earlier… the better.

Feliz Año Nuevo

Happy New Year! I hope everybody had a great winter break. I am happy to have the children back in the classroom, I missed them!! Before the Holidays we talked in class about how people welcome the New Year in Spain: on New Year's Eve friends and families wait for the clock to strike midnight on the streets or at home in front of the TV. Every time the bell strikes we eat one grape, that makes a total of 12 grapes. Then, adults and children toast (with juice, of course) for the New Year and wish each other health, love, money and luck. Even Nico ate the 12 grapes!!