A crowd-source resource

On Monday I posted about creating model texts for colleagues to use in their lessons.  I invited blog readers to contribute a text for inclusion in the resource to be used with beginner learners of Spanish who are learning about grammatical gender for the first time.

You can see an image of the contributed texts above, and you can download the resource here.

I introduced my two beginner Year 4 classes to the texts today.  I gave them each a glossary of the 36 nouns that are used in the texts.  Then I gave them a copy of the texts between two, and asked them to work in pairs to find the genders of each noun.  They did really well finding them, using the colours as well as everything they knew about indefinite articles and final -o and -a to help them.

I'm aiming for the children to write their own texts, ultimately.  Next I'm going to get them to help me to write what is in my teacher apron, starting with just a list then adding the starters, conjunctions and so on. When they start writing their own I might let them have an additional glossary for some funny vocabulary.  I might also get them to underline words in the colours or even write the words in colours, as suggested by Vincent Everett.

If there are any resources that you think would be useful in this format, please mention it in the comments.  Spanish or French both fine!

Crowd-sourcing model texts

I was very interested in this tweet when I saw it at lunchtime yesterday. It's from Samara Spielberg, who is a Spanish teacher in the US. She asks colleagues to write short texts which incorporate certain set phrases, verbs and structures. Then her students read and analyse them before using them as a model for their own work. 

by Samara Spielberg

I think this is a model we could adapt for Key Stage 2. It would be quite straightforward to provide each other with multiple model texts in this way. 

To get the ball rolling I'm going to try it out for gender in Spanish, something that I have just begun with my Year 4 new starters.

I would be very grateful if you could write a sentence or couple of sentences using the highlighted language that you can see at the top of this post.  You can see my example to start you off.  Don't worry about colour highlighting, as I can do that.  If you don't want to add your real name, a pseudonym or nickname would be fine.

You can add your sentences here in a comment, or email them to me.

I'll be seeing Year 4 on Thursday 7th, so any received before then will be most welcome!

¡Muchas gracias!  I will, of course, share any resulting resources.

Language Links

Personally, I find it difficult to teach another language (Spanish and French in my case) without comparing the words and structures in the new language with English.  For example, colours are often one of the first things that we teach new learners.  With my classes I look for clues, tips and hints that will help us to remember the words.  One of the most common ones is remembering blanco/blanc by thinking of the English word blank.  Quite often these clues, tips and hints lead us to high quality English vocabulary that I recommend to my students that they use.  In recent weeks we have mentioned azure, stupendous and phantom.  

This also links very well with the curriculum for English, where there is a big emphasis at the moment on improving and building English vocabulary.  At the beginning of July I started to make posters to formalise these links and make them available on Light Bulb Languages.  The links are designed to stimulate interest in other languages while building English vocabulary and showing links to help students to remember the new words. 

The L2 word on each poster is a translation of the first English word.  Then the second English word is linked to the L2 word (sometimes they are cognates but not always).  The two English words are always linked in some way.

I post a new link every day to the Light Bulb Languages Twitter page and Facebook page, and then every week or so I upload the new ones to the webpage.  They are available in French, Spanish, German and Italian.

There are 131 links currently on the webpage, and there is a new one ready to post for every day until 9th December so far, with plenty more in the pipeline.  If you can think of any good links, or if you come across a good one in your teaching, please leave it in the comments!

And more Spanish books!

¡Hola desde Sevilla!  A great way to spend half term.  I was allowed a little while in a book shop today, and happened upon these two:

I have to admit I like this one because I have a Nina in my house.  The book is all about Nina starting primary school and everything she encounters there.  It's a great insight into Spanish primary schools.

I was drawn to this one partly by its very topical message, and partly by the fact that it has lots of infinitives, which I am have just started with Year 6!  

Each double page spread has an acetate overlay.  You read what you should do to help the environment, then turn the acetate and it shows you!

My final purchase was a book of Mafalda bookmarks, so here is a topical one for you:

UPDATE:

I've just got another one!

It's a pop-up book about jungle animals.  The first one, for example, is a crocodile:

 You can see it says "cocodrilo" down the side, and there's the sound he makes on the left.   But the best is yet to come - you can flip over just half of the page ro mix him with another animal, like a hippo:

And you get a Cocopótamo!  Then why not mix the hippo with something

like a toucan, to make a Hipocán.  There is a great combination of sounds on the left too.

There is also a "La Granja" book in the same series.

Sonidos Españoles

It's finally here!  I've been working on Sonidos Españoles, a new Spanish phonics resource, since July.  Finding all the words and creating the 180+ illustrations has taken a long time! 

There are six PowerPoints, each practising 3 or 4 sounds, and also some resources to support and practise the sounds further:

Part 1: a, o, h, ll
Part 2: ñ, e, i, u
Part 3: ce, ci, z
Part 4: cu, qu, v, b
Part 5: ge, gi, j
Part 6: r-, rr, gue, gui, güe, güi

Each part begins with a sentence which contains all the sounds to be practised in that part.  Then there are 6 words containing each sound to practise with.  Each part also finishes with a little story to practise the sounds in the context of sentences rather than single words.  Audio has been provided by a native speaker - thank you Susi!

I hope you like it and enjoy using it.  I've already been using it with my new Y3s and Y4s and they seemed to like it!

There is a 25% discount with code SONIDOS until Friday 20th September :)