A Class Día in Español

This week I leveled my middle school/high school classes as each class has up to three different levels within. It was done for a variety of reasons, but mostly to stay organized, provide students with the direct instruction and support they require, and to identify who needs what.

I will focus on the Spanish 1 group as they are working towards expressing themselves in the target language and expand upon their vocabulary usage.

My goals for the week were for students to acquire and use new vocabulary as they emphasized their use of new words, the verb tener and the theme for the week.

Pre-Assessment: 

• Slide show of images (ask for name of each and how to say the/a/an)

After the brief informal pre-assessment, I realized some students had some understanding of the basics (nouns are either masculine or feminine), but few understood that adjectives and the (el/la) must match the gender of the noun when speaking or writing. This clarified my goals and focus overall.

Student Activities: 

• Watch a short video on articles (the, a/an) with lots of new vocabulary. 
• List new vocabulary words and identify gender of each. Some worked independently while others worked in pairs. 
• Write two simple sentences & illustrate using new vocabulary and verb conjugations. 
• Whole group review for support and clarification

Reflection: 

While this was not exactly the same lesson as originally intended, I find myself changing to accomodate the needs and learning styles of my students. It took longer than anticipated and I certainly spent more time with individual students to ensure they understood the expectations and assignment. I explained to them the 4 point rubric and with that they were able to determine their own level of understanding and attainment of the goals and objectives. 

What would I change? I would try to make it more interactive for the students. Perhaps have them create a simple dialog in pairs to practice language and pronunciation. I will certainly be doing more activities like this and will incorporate more TPR (total physical response) activities along with art and technology. 

What did I like? I liked that students were interested in learning new words through a short, but authentic Spanish language video. I like that they took ownership of their learning and asked questions for clarification. I appreciated that they all participated in the wrap up and made sure that they demonstrated to me how much they had learned in just one lesson. This made it all worthwhile.