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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acquire28 acquired3 acquisition33 civilization1 collaboration work1 collaborative2 communication7 communicative7 comprehend10 comprehensible41 culture22 Education8 fluency15 grade 85 group work5 history5 imperfect2 incas1 independent3 information5 informative1 innate1 input39 internalize1 invented1 language26 language skills1 listening29 mayas1 oral11 output10 pair work2 past5 poster2 presentation10 proficiency8 project10 simple past4 skills24 Spanish27 speaking37 storylistening2

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":

http://youtu.be/cV-j3XBHeHM
without subtitles

http://youtu.be/v9j5rlKQDlI
with subtitles

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comprehension31 examination4 exams3 free time2 futbolchapas1 grade 108 grade 98 hobbies4 IGCSE12 listening29 oral11 ping-pong de puerta1 presentation10 questions19 reading36 skills24 Spanish27 speaking37 sport1 subtitles1

Reviewing holidays with IGCSE students

We are now reviewing for the IGCSE speaking examination in less than two weeks time! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I created different boards on Audioboo related to the different topics my students will be asked about. I posted samples of questions and answers which my students recorded in groups so that they can review at home or in the bus or wherever and whenever they want!

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answers8 audio file1 audioboo3 board4 brainstorming1 conversation12 converse3 difusionELE1 Education8 examination4 file1 grade 108 holidays1 IGCSE12 oral11 questions19 record2 review4 reviewing2 revise1 revision2 Spanish27 speaking37 theme3 topic8 youtube17

Storytelling: arranging to go out

I am using stories more and more often in my lessons as I believe my students greatly benefit from listening to them as well as reading them and writing new ones. Apart from inventing my own stories, my favorite source is The Comprehensible Classroom which has a wealth of fantastic resources and story scripts.

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arranging to go out1 comprehensible41 comprehension31 create5 creative12 creativity3 film7 free time2 go out1 high frequency7 hobbies4 key structures7 listening29 output10 project10 Spanish27 speaking37 story34 storytelling28 TPRS34 writing17 youtube17

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 creativity3 curriculum5 design2 Education8 engage14 fluency15 grade 68 key structure10 leaflet1 map2 peer assessment2 picture3 presentation10 project10 recap1 record2 school5 Spanish27 speaking37 structure10 topic8

Describing your home town and local area in Spanish

Another IGCSE topic is about describing where you live. First I had my grade 9 students watch this excellent video about a girl describing where she lives near Madrid (you can watch it with or without subtitles):

I then asked my students to produce a short movie like the one above about their local area.

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criteria1 describe4 description5 Education8 feedback3 film7 home3 home town2 homework2 IGCSE12 local area2 Madrid1 oral11 peer assessment2 publish2 publishing1 skills24 Spanish27 speaking37 speaking skills2 technology2 topic8 town1

Restorative yoga before bedtime

One thing that I did achieve during my maternity leave is to get back into shape. In fact, I have never felt so good and so fit in years! First I started to do yoga on a regular basis but I noticed I needed more cardio workout so I decided I would have a go at running.

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