Spanish Teachers – Suggestions needed!
We recently received an email from a Spanish teacher, Marcy, and thought that perhap you guys could help. Here is Marcy’s message:
I teach 8th, 9th and 10th graders (13 to 16 year olds) – Spanish level 1 and 2… A question: Given the ages and levels of the students I teach, what suggestions would you give me for: a). Using your site/podcasts in my teaching; and b.) ways to make learning Spanish come alive and be more authentic and less theoretical for them.
Can anyone give Marcy a hand? Let us know your thoughts below in the comments or in a similar post in the forums. Thanks!
Posted in: Spanish | Comments: 5
Comments:
Comment from Neil
Molly — Thanks for letting us know about Yabla. ¡Es súper!
Comment from Steve
After I graduated from college with a Spanish major I was a substitute teacher at my old high school for 2 days. It seemed like nobody was interested in learning Spanish except for the AP students. I tried to bring in some good spanish music thinking that would make it more fun but that didn’t seem to work either. Maybe I’m just a bad teacher haha.
Comment from Jason Keuter
Actually Steve, you learned in two days what most teachers fail to learn in 20 years. That would make you a GOOD teacher, as you use words like “students” and “learn” in the same sentence. A bureaucrat passing themselves off as a teacher (and I am one) must buy into the laughable notion that it is the teacher’s job to motivate a student.
The best thing to do in the situation you describe is to pacify the majority and teach to the minority – or demand that schools be privatized, so that students who wish to learn can unencumbered by those who will not or can’t.
So all you teachers out there : wake up and smell the day old coffee.
Comment from Jason Keuter
in all seriousness, the best solution to a passive student is to ask them questions – in Spanish! – and keep doing it until you can get answers….in Spanish. Usually, any answer that indicates understanding will suffice..including one word answers. The natural progression in learning any language begins with listening comprehension, and that phase lasts a very long time. The more you address the students in the target language and the more you respond with further questions to each of their responses in the target language, the more they will learn.
Comment from Molly
Check out the website http://lomastv.yabla.com/. It has videos which are subtitled in English and Spanish. The videos deal with cultural and political topics all over the Spanish Speaking World. A notation of the Spanish level is provided with the name of the video. There are also games to test your comprehension. If you sign up as a teacher, you can track your student’ progress as they complete different games. Hope this helps.