World Languages for Life

More Resources even though March is over!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 02:58:00 +0000

Happy April everyone!

It's very hard to check out resources during the day and implement them! Take one idea and add it now to your curriculum! Before you know it, you will have an extensive library.

1) Señor Jordan Get videos for level I Spanish. Can be used for hw or in class. What I like about his videos is that the grammar is correct. Check them out!

2) Zachary Jones Great source for videos, music, authentic reading materials (short like ads and longer) and photo vocabulary! Give it a try. Authentic non-fiction!

3) MSU Good source for curricula, testing, data about aptitude and language acquisition, and great articles to share with colleagues.

4) Spanish language and culture Song activities related to grammar topics and points! The songs are on the newer side and not very old!! Great way teach grammar! The songs are from different Spanish speaking countries- great source for different accents. Can be a focus for a cultural theme or as noted above, a grammar topic. Sweet! Also, practice grammar examples too. They have preterit vs imperfect activities. It's not only for level 1- which is great.

March Madness Continues-More World Language Teacher Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 12:16:00 +0000

My first post was about a few free resources. Today, I am adding a few more. You may know about some of these. Hopefully, you can use these. We get bombarded at school with everything so what I started doing was taking one new idea and adding it right away to a lesson, unit or grammar point. This way I'm all set and have incorporated something new even if it is for future use.

Here are some more awesome resources for World Language Teachers!

1) NY STATE ED Yes, State Ed. dept! They have free resource guides for all three checkpoints. Can't hurt to see what they have to offer. You can also print and use old Regents and Proficiency Exams.

2) Mis Cositas This is a fabulous site with a plethora of resources for French and Spanish teachers created by the wonderful Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez. Here you can find videos, realia, and virtual picture books. Lori has also posted information about her many workshops and conferences.

3) Socrative Here's a simple way to incorporate some technology for free in the World Language classroom for free! Socrative allows you to create questions (multiple choice, open-ended or both) for you to use for a variety of assessments. For example, a quick review, a unit summary, exit tickets, or for a "do-now". My school allows students to BYOD for education purposes. The students can log on with computers too. If you make the quizzes short enough, two students can use one computer. The steps are easy to follow and you can save the quizzes for future use. Here's how it works; you sign up, make the quiz, and you are given a room. With the open ended questions, be careful with how you write the answers. They have to be specific or it will tell the kids that they are wrong. When the students go on, the enter the room number and can begin the test.

4) FL TEACH This is an oldie but a goodie! I used it frequently when I was an undergrad student. The site has changed but the quality of the content hasn't. Here you can search the lesson plan database, check out some links that are language specific, post questions and help others by answering/commenting. In the past, this site was funded by a grant. They may still receive grant money but if you like it enough, you can donate!

5) Maine World Languages I just found this recently. This is from Maine and is an open list of resources. You would be able to find things in German, French and Spanish. There's about 115 resources; videos, where to search for information about a country, flashcards, grammar and culture. The short descriptions are accurate! Bookmark this one!! Share it with colleagues.

March Resource Madness

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 22:23:00 +0000

Today is my first post. I'm very new at this. Blogging has always seemed "scary" to me. So, here we go.
My first blog post will focus on a few invaluable WL (world language) resources.

1)word reference This site allows students to look up words in a world language and more than just a translation. It provides examples and other related word terms.

2) FLACS This organization came about after NY state ceased making the world language Proficiency and Regents. It's composed of administrations and chair persons in Long Island. The site has sample readings for all levels, power points, details about item writing, information where you can take courses for FLES extension and a good source for theme ideas in the WL classroom.

3) Teachers pay Teachers This site has many free resources for teachers. Take your time and look around. I got many ideas just by previewing free sources and reading descriptions of some of the content. I've found more for Spanish here than Italian, but it's worth looking at. Don't forget-some of the English elementary content can apply to the WL class. You can also post materials that you have made.

4) BBC NEWS BBC News has this great resource for WL teachers!! I love it! I used it a few years ago and my students loved it. It's a "soap opera/mystery", if you will. Each episode is about 20 minutes. I made my students watch them at home one week, then the next we watched the next episode in class. Try it out! It's Free! Could be an assignment for extra credit too if you feel it takes too much time.