I did not grow up in the city, and accordingly, sometimes I think my lessons sprawl out everywhere, like the rolling countryside. When does one lesson end and another begin? No one really knows. Let me provide an example (for detailed examples, see HERE).

The school year is about to commence, and for perhaps the fifteenth year in a row, I am excited but also a bit panicky and nervous. How do I teach, again? Do I remember? And, most importantly, where to begin? The age-old questions haunt me at night: do I start in English on day one to provide structure and a curricular overview, and allay students’ fears that Spanish class is not impossible but rather exciting and project-based–but thereby risking that I will slide into English when the going gets tough? Or do I begin in Spanish and set the tone for an immersive classroom, but struggle later on in the year when expectations and rules have not been clearly stated understood and the curricular flow is not obvious to students?

Now, don’t get me wrong: I aim for a 90-100% immersive classroom experience. This is and has always been the goal. Some classes are closer to 99%, others less so. While I love the idea of 100% immersion, we only meet two to three times a week, which means that our learning targets must be adjusted accordingly; I do not teach at an immersion school. True fluency is idealistic but not likely, given the time constraints. However, this year I have a solution, at least for this seemingly annual query.

Enter THE SPANISH CONSTITUTION. Wait, what? How in the world are you teaching La Constitución Espanola to elementary-aged students? Don’t worry, I created an abridged version! Here was my step-by-step process:

1. Get a piece of normal computer paper. Crumple it up and then flatten it back out.
2. Fill a pan with strong tea or coffee, and soak the paper in it for several hours.
3. Dry the paper with a hairdryer.
4. Decide on your top 3-5 most important qualities you want students to strive for in your classroom, all year long. You can do this with your students, too, of course, but I chose not to this year to save time.
   • Soy amable. (I am kind.)
   • Soy inteligente. (I am smart.)
   • Soy fuerte. (I am strong.)
   • Soy valiente. (I am courageous/ brave.)
5. Write them in your best print or cursive with a black Sharpie on the now tea-stained paper.
6. Discuss as a class (in English) what being kind/ smart/ strong/ brave looks like in your room. I like to use questions here. How can you be brave in Spanish class? Ask questions! How can you be strong? Never give up, ever!
7. Have students sign an attached page with their fanciest signatures, as though it were the Declaration of Independence. Post in your classroom.
8. Repeat the Spanish words like a mantra at the beginning of each class period, as a quick reminder. You will, of course, still need to remind and discipline, but this provides a nice structure where you can focus on the Spanish.
   • If you teach more advanced levels, the “Soy...” sentences could be written up with more complex sentence structures and vocabulary; and when classes have mastered these phrases, you can likewise ‘level up’ however you see fit.
   • That could mean asking, “¿Cómo eres?” at the beginning of class, and students’ job is to provide those four answers (and/or more), or prompting them with, “Primero/ Antes que nada, …. [soy amable]”, “Segundo, [soy inteligente]”, etc.

Image #1, Image #2

By far, my favorite lessons are the ones that begin with a plan, veer off course completely, and then somehow end up at the final destination, relatively unscathed. Today had a plan, but unfurled so beautifully that I had to share.

First, we finished–FINALLY!!–our class story. If you recall, we do storytelling most Fridays, but as we missed multiple Fridays due to half days and holidays, our story stretched into a saga of over a month and a half. Here, “evil Pato” keeps taking a wolf’s lunch and eating it. As a result, the wolf cries. And cries. And cries. (cue THIS SONG, first eight seconds only/”sing and don’t cry”/canta y no llores). Finally, the wolf puts a shoe in the sandwich, “evil Pato” eats it, and the wolf laughs. The end. #YesIKnowItIsARidiculousPlot!

Someone wanted to know if there was a “hamburger song“, not to be confused with the “pizza song“, since it would be more relevant- and wouldn’t you know, their wish came true (see below).

There are gestures for every single word in the story, so it requires a lot of movement and energy. But second graders ROCKED IT this morning and we told and acted out the entire narrative in 12 minutes. Bravo!

Next, second graders shifted to centers. This week, I have been trying to “trick” students by asking them different and unexpected questions in the target language, to make sure they are listening and comprehending, as opposed to repeating memorized phrases. They have made good progress with this.

Other grade levels have gotten excited about “train rides” in Spanish class, and recently we decided to extend this to second grade. Here, students climb on top of my long tables [after paying]–and we push the tables and students verrrrry slowly across the room. The tables are on wheels, and make a very soft “hum” sound when moving, much akin to the soft hum of trams at airports.

I play realistic train sound effects on loop in the background; there is an old-school bell they ring to get off the train; the train drivers have licenses (which can be revoked); and students “travel” in circles around my room on the trains [moving tables] to different places in the town, while studying a [real] map of the metro system in Madrid. “Do we switch to the red line now? Is that train #5?” etc. Some students even tie yarn around my stuffed animal dogs as leashes, and “wait” at the train stations, walking their dogs and “talking” on rectangular pieces of plastic, err, I mean, cell phones; and take the train to the “office”, where they work furiously on cardboard laptops until it is time for the commute home in the evening.

Other students use huge cardboard boxes to “build” up the neighborhood, or work at the supermarket, waiting for customers to get off the train and spend their hard-earned cash. Some days, students’ Spanish is lacking, but today was not one of those days!! Spanish just kind of fell of their tongues so naturally that I was absurdly delighted and smiling head to toe! 

Thank you for your general support of the language program and for raising such great kiddos! Have a blessed and relaxing Thanksgiving and break.

Some days in Spanish class, we lollygag and I allow time for vocabulary and Culture Projects to sift through students’ minds. It doesn’t feel–at least on paper–like we accomplish all that much, but I know that they are processing.  I am intentional about making time for these “lazy Sunday” lessons because on other days, we go 180 miles per hour, and I jampack their brains with so much information that everyone is overloaded!

Today was one of those 180mps (Freudian slip “miles per second” in lieu of mph, but I think I’ll leave it since we accomplished a ton in 30 minutes today!). Let me explain.

Class began with our Friday dance (“¡Es viernes!/It’s Friday!) and a quick recap of the previous lesson on dinero/money; several students had been absent but I also just wanted to review everything from Tuesday. Second graders had learned that other countries use money that may have numbers we recognize, but those digits do not usually represent the same value or have the same worth as our US dollars. This feels convoluted as I write it, but we took time on Tuesday to give a million examples so that students were able to grasp the concept. They handed me fake bills from Spanish-speaking countries (pesos, euros, bolivianos, etc.), and I used an online currency converter to tell them how much money they were holding (since the value changes continuously). Conversation as follows:

STUDENT: Ha! 5,000 guaraníes (Paraguay).
ME: 73 cents.
STUDENT: WHAT???!

NEXT STUDENT: 500 euros (Spain).
ME: $585.52 USD
STUDENT: I’M RICH!!!

And so on and so forth. Students were both fascinated and perplexed by the idea. I shared a chart with the same number of pesos/euros on one column, with the corresponding value in USD on the other to drive home the point.

This only took a few minutes to review since most students were already familiar with the concept. Next, I asked a pregunta/question– Where is our ‘class town’ located?”–while slyly stroking and holding a shoulder bag that had, “MADRID MADRID MADRID MADRID MADRID” written all over it (which I had purchased in Spain a number of years ago). Students looked at a few photos of Madrid, Spain (the capital city), and made connections with the movie Vivo (they recognized an iconic image of Madrid that apparently is one scene).

We shifted gears at this point, and I said that while we will still continue building and working in our town on Mondays and Tuesdays, Fridays will be our “Story Days”. These stories are highly interactive and told in Spanish, but we had to do some prep work today beforehand.

PREP WORK & BACKSTORY: Second graders had seen a very silly 3-second video of a squirrel the other day (put on loop!!), so I decided to build this into our first story of the year. Students watched a cartoon of a “flying” squirrel and then lined up and took turns pretending to fly and then “epic-ly failing” by falling down on the carpet. I sang, “Puedo volar” (I can fly) to the tune of R. Kelly’s song in English, and then we watched a 34-second cartoon and they listened for key words (sí-sí-sí-sí/yes-yes-yes-yes; más/more; sé que puedo volar/I believe I can fly).

In the actual story, we haven’t gotten anywhere near the flying squirrel, but I like to pre-teach language for future use and have students wondering how this will all fit into the plot. 

Anyway, for Day #1 of interactive storytelling, students spread out around the room and repeat and mimic what I am doing. We attach a gesture to EVERY SINGLE word in the story, so there is a lot of movement and energy, but it is controlled and intentional.

We began by turning off the lights and setting the stage: “Una noche… duh-duh-DUUUUH!” (one night + overly dramatic air piano sound effects), and then learn that it is Monday in our story (we do a lunes/Monday cheer, and spell it out, YMCA-style), and that there is a lobo/wolf (main character) who runs to McDonald’s. I told students that they can absolutely love or hate McDonald’s–your opinion is your opinion!–but that we mention it in class because jingles stick in your head, and restaurant chains all have jingles that have been, yes, TRANSLATED! (Me encanta/I’m lovin’ it/I love it), which makes language easier to remember [if they already have a reference point in English]. Class was about over by this time, so they lined up for the habitual, “¡SORPRESA!” (surprise) for their teacher, and said our goodbyes!

Well, this was not the most concise update (“Oh me, oh my, pumpkin pie! That was not concise at all, maestra!!), but seeing as we have started to layer on a new unit, I wanted to share and provide a glimpse into the Spanish classroom/empire/world/planet/universe/something, HA! 🙂

I hope you have a truly wonderful Fri-YAY! and thank you so much for reading!

WEEKS 3-4: Just so you are aware, any lesson involving Pato tends to grow and evolve and become an all-out saga that goes on and on because–as the PSA (Professional Stuffed Animal) of a linguist (yours truly)–he has inherited a love of words and language. In other words, these Spanish updates will not be strictly aligned with society’s definition of “every week”, but rather, whenever a lesson circles back around and all of the dots are connected. At times, even Pato is unsure of where all of this is going–metaphorically stumbling through the fog–but in the end, the sun brings a clear sky, everything makes sense, and it all works out (“In the end, it all works out. If it’s not working out, it’s not the end!”). Fortunately, this happened today. But let me rewind a few classes and start from the beginning.

After discussing how many Spanish-speaking countries there are in the world (21), second graders adjusted to starting class with “El mapa” (the map). Here, all of the countries of South America are outlined with masking tape on a 6’x9’ canvas painter’s drop cloth, so that students can simultaneously jump on and name the places (one at a time). The first week, we started with España/Spain, then added Chile and Argentina, and this morning we added Uruguay. We are moving from south to north, but since we had already talked about Spain in conjunction with the Camino (the long hike), students ‘swim’ or ‘fly’ across the room to a corner designated as España.

Today began with students spreading out the tape floor map silently–no words or sounds allowed! I explained in English afterwards that while it always shows good character to be quiet and considerate of other classes, the reason for this activity was primarily linguistic: if you are dropped in a foreign land and do not speak the language, you will rely heavily on gestures and body language. These are all clues and should not be disregarded! I socially distanced myself from them, slid down my mask, and made an angry face, crossing my arms. How am I feeling right now, class? Mad! Did you need to know the word, “enojada” (angry) to understand that? I want to give students tools to navigate another language, and being observant can be enormously helpful when it comes to comprehension.

Anyway, while second graders jumped on the map, I showed those waiting in line a slideshow of photos highlighting said countries, and answered their questions, adding personal travel anecdotes when relevant or necessary. What are those animals? A capybara and a coati! Is that Easter Island (Chile)? Yes! Can you play that video? The video was actually a song of classic Argentine and Uruguayan Tango music, to which students listened and then did the basic T-A-N-G-O step. (For any ballroom dancers out there, Argentine Tango is beautiful but too complex for our purposes, so I teach the American Tango step to students.) 

We connected this to our previous conversation about the “angry face” because the character of the Tango dance is angry and hostile, with sharp movements and defined steps. It is a great dance to do when you are mad!

Switching to Spanish, we continued recounting The Adventures of Pato. Here, I was nervous that the story was losing a bit of steam, so I knew we had to spice it up and connect all of the dots. You see, each lesson, second graders are excited to see and ‘talk’ with Pato. He visited second grade last week and was sopping wet (it literally took three days to dry him out) and they all wanted to know why. As a result, he began to explain the–as one student so eloquently phrased it–“grossly exaggerated” tale. Embellishment might as well be his middle name.

In 2-1, it was a scorchingly hot summer day (hace calor/ “AH-say kah-LORE”), and Pato could not tolerate the heat: he jumped into the ocean (agua/water), feeling the cool waves beneath his wings, and smiled–until a huge shark zoomed into the picture (literally: I created a slideshow after we came up with the story), with a voice booming four malevolent syllables, “TENGO HAMBRE” (I’m hungry). Thought-bubbles of a scrumptious “duck sandwich” came to mind as he swam closer and closer. Clearly, we had a situation.

In 2-2, a similar plot ensued, except that Pato was peacefully sleeping in his bed, dreaming of an ice cream cone with not one, but TWO scoops of chocolate (helado de chocolate), when all of a sudden, a group of shark-ghosts/tiburón–fantasmas (and shark-foxes and shark-black cats/tiburones-gatos negros (what?!), etc.) snuck into his dream, ravenous as all get out and ready to chow down on a duck sandwich. (We won’t get into the logistics of what happens when the dreamer who initiated the dream gets eaten. Does everyone disappear? And if so, was the dreamer really eaten, when none of it is reality to begin with? I digress.)

Point being, both classes ended up on the same page re: a duck sandwich, so it seemed an appropriate time to insert a smidgen of cultural knowledge about food: “bocadillo” (sandwich/ “bow-kah-DEE-yo”) and “tapas” (snacks or appetizers in Spain/ “TAH-pahs”). Students pretended to physically become “bocadillos” or “tapas” around the room here (stretched out or curled up). We also played a “tiburón” (shark) vs. everyone game several lessons ago, where the “everyones” had to say, “¡No me comas!” (don’t eat me) as a response to, “Tengo hambre” (I’m hungry).

Students also listened to their class songs, namely, Rompe Ralph/ Wreck-It Ralph and La Roja Baila, and 2-1 made sure to voice their–mostly fabricated–complaints (once they realized that I was over exaggerating absolutely everything to elicit a “Me duele/it hurts” response from them). They also practiced writing a few sight words in the target language.

BUT BACK TO the story! Pato decided that the only way he was going to be able to escape was by flying. However, flying is an art–even for a young duck–and he needed some assistance here. Second graders helped rig up a string zipline in the classroom for the stuffed animal and away he flew, out of danger’s grasp.

When you hear about each day individually from your child, it might be difficult to follow all of this; but when the lessons invariably come together and the pixelated view becomes a panoramic view one magical, cloudy Tuesday morning, my hope is that you see where we are going. To sum up, in Spanish class our goal is to incorporate both language and culture.

The end beginning. Have a great week and thanks so much for reading!

Newsletter 20-21, Oct. (2)

Weeks 1-2: This week, students in second grade–along with several other classes–met a stuffed animal duck named Pato (which conveniently means duck in Spanish). Pato has a big personality, and immediately made his presence known by wearing sock pajamas to school the first day of class. He also likes to sing the classic song “Feliz Navidad” while wearing his Christmas sweater and scarf, regardless of the fact that it is August (and not December) and a million degrees outside.

By the third day, Pato was dressing more appropriately for school but insisted on wearing his mask on his head/cabeza because, in his words, “No me gusta” (‘no may goose-tah’/I don’t like it). After looking around and seeing that everyone else was wearing one–and being told sternly that he would have to go home (read: get stuffed in my backpack and not hang out with the cool second graders) if he did not wear it–he decided to follow directions. He was much too excited about the class project to bother arguing, anyway (thank goodness!).

PHOTOS: Pato not wearing his mask. Pato wearing his mask.

The class’ project began with students learning about a 500-mile hike through northern Spain called El Camino de Santiago (see link for video and photos). Grades 1-4 are starting with this because students will be able to earn miles on the hike all year long by completing Weekly Spanish Challenges. The trail is marked by arrows and shells, so second graders grabbed their backpacks (mochilas) and water bottles (agua/water!), walked up and down mountains (read: stairways) all over campus, and helped the older grades draw chalk shells and arrows on the ground. To ascertain that they would not get lost in the dark, students also colored in shells (on paper), painted them with glow-in-the-dark paint, and added glitter. We will obviously add more glitter next time. (…because Pato likes glitter. A lot.)

While listening to THIS SONG and THIS SONG in Spanish as background music, they noticed that their markers had Spanish translations on them in tiny print (red/rojo, blue/azul, etc.). The official colors of the Camino are blue and yellow in real life, which are also the school colors– perfecto!

Silliness with Pato and launching straight into a hands-on (and masks-on) cultural project have allowed for a [mostly] Spanish-immersion type of classroom environment–which is the goal. I want students to begin the year by listening to a lot of the target language, recalling any passive vocabulary from previous years, and getting excited about learning Spanish. We will be focusing in on specific words and phrases soon.

Whether they realize it or not, I am also constantly testing students in class simply by asking questions in the target language: Which color paint do you want to use next? Can you shake off the glitter over the trash can, please?! What do we do now? Cut out the shells and paste them on this strip of paper. Pato is thirsty– could you bring him a water bottle? (Students pretend to give him water.)

Many second graders are answering all of these questions and more. When a question is too abstract or the class gets lost, I return to English to clarify. This does not mean that students are already fluent or can translate all of these questions; it merely indicates that the language is comprehensible and that they are intuiting what I am saying in the moment by the context and visual cues. Language acquisition is a fascinating combination of science and art, with a slice of magic on the side! I don’t know exactly how or why this happens; I just know that it does. By the end of the year, students will be able to follow the same conversation but this time, it will be because they have acquired the vocabulary.

Long story short–short story long!–I am looking forward to an amazing year!

VIRTUAL LEARNERS are encouraged to check out the video and photos at THIS LINK, and to create their own “Camino” at home. The arrows and shells are oftentimes made out of things in nature as well. Students may color or paint the shell template above; outline an arrow using some rocks or palms; collect shells at the beach; or simply draw your own arrow and shell signs and hang them up around your house. Make sure they are all pointed in the same direction, so that you don’t get lost. Feel free to send pictures, if you like!

For language input, virtual learners may also 1) participate in the Weekly Spanish Challenges; 2) sign up for a Duolingo account and do a lesson or two; and/or 3) watch a movie or cartoon in the target language (Spanish voiceover and English subtitles). Just get used to hearing a lot of Spanish!

Newsletter 20-21, Aug. (2)