Civilization project to use the past tense in Spanish

I have covered the past tense in Spanish with my grade 8 students (13-14 years old) this term and I want them to be able to describe past events confidently and accurately. Over my teaching experience I have found out that doing the traditional grammar exercises such as filling in the gaps with the correct verb forms does not really work with students.

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How to get students to talk about a sport in Spanish for one minute or two?

When reviewing the topic of free time with my grade 9 students (14-15 years old), I decided to spice it up a bit with “different” kind of sports and hobbies such as “el futbolchapas”:

without subtitles

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comprehension250 examination5 exams3 free time7 futbolchapas1 grade 108 grade 98 hobbies8 IGCSE12 listening52 oral12 ping-pong de puerta1 questions74 reading252 skills26 Spanish33 speaking73 sport9 subtitles5 video350

Different language projects around the topic of school

The topic of school in grade 6 (11-12 years old) gives the opportunity to learn about the facilities at a school, the different subjects and the time (here is the curriculum I planned for this topic). At the end of the topic I like to have a my students work on a project to recap all the new vocabulary and structures they have learned.

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assessment1 connective1 creativity4 curriculum5 design4 Education20 engage150 fluency107 grade 68 key structure10 leaflet1 map2 peer assessment2 picture5 project11 recap1 record3 school35 Spanish33 speaking73 structure10 topic24 video350

How web 2.0 tools can improve students’ language skills?

This weekend I am going to present at the Association of German International Schools (AGIS) in Hannover about web 2.0 tools and how I use them to help my students develop their language skills. A lot of my presentation is inspired by the wonderful Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano who emphasizes in her blog that it’s not about the tools,

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AGIS1 conference5 Education20 inspire13 language45 listening52 literacy5 motivate151 participant1 reading252 skills26 speaking73 try3 web5 web 2.08 web literate1 writing55

A fun way to describe a family in Spanish

I think I have already mentioned a few times that I really dislike going trough the boring topics of the IGCSE examinations! I am therefore trying to find new ways of reviewing some of the topics students have already learned such as describing people, and particularly describing family members.

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Blogging1 book95 creative13 describe37 description96 examination5 exams3 family164 fun413 grade 98 IGCSE12 mini-book2 oral12 pocket book1 present565 presenting102 Spanish33 speaking73 topics19

Creating a new TV program in Spanish

With my current grade 8, we culminated our unit about television with a creative project: to create a new TV program and present it to possible producers!

Before working on the project, we looked at different kind of TV programs in Spain and in South America which lead to different activities and which also provided with a lot of comprehensible input.

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accuracy4 autentic1 engage150 feedback41 fluency107 game show1 hispanic4 input47 language45 listening52 motivation201 poster2 program1 project11 reading252 ressources40 series71 skills26 Spanish33 speaking73 tv5 unit3 Uruguay1 wiki5

Learning the different French Christmas traditions

Since this week should be the last teaching week before the awaited holidays, I thought I would share some ideas and links to how Christmas is celebrated by the French.
In Provence, there are many local traditions. This short video explains all the symbols of the Provencal Christmas table and meal with French subtitles:

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