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You know one of my obsessions is reading. But how do you get students reading when they barely have any language yet? And what if you don’t have the books, the time, or the budget?

In this episode, Adam Giedd joins me to share how he got novice learners reading. Adam is a former Spanish teacher who now writes short readers for novice learners. He once taught 920 students in five schools, 30 minutes a week, with nothing on the walls, and he still got them reading. He came to the Spanish Teacher Academy to share these ideas, and the session was so good we had to bring it to the podcast.

In this episode:

• Why we need to write for our struggling readers, not our strongest ones
• Why Adam focuses only on verbs when he co-creates a text with his class
• Adam’s shortcut for teachers who don’t have time to learn Write and Discuss: backward plan from a short book
• How to start silent sustained reading tomorrow with $0
• Why short, easy books help students trust you as a reader
• Book Bingo: Adam’s simple way to get students reading the same book five times

Pick one idea, try it this week, and tell me how it goes.

Links:

Confident Pigeon (Adam’s reading platform): https://www.confidentpigeon.com/

Read the blog post

Connect with Adam

Episode 84, The Power of Reading with Dr. Stephen Krashen

Join the Spanish Teacher Academy: https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

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I LOVE games. But if I'm going to give 15 or 20 precious minutes of class time to a game, I want language happening. A lot of it.

In this episode, AnneMarie Chase and Andrea Caulfield, authors of Proficiency Through Play, join me to talk about how we can play AND keep supporting language acquisition. Because fun and rigor are not opposites. And they didn't introduce themselves. They made me play a game instead! 😂

In this episode:

• This, That, Both, or Neither, the guessing game AnneMarie used to introduce herself and Andrea
• Google Detective (5 minutes), shared by Andrea
• Art Memory (15–20 minutes), shared by AnneMarie
• Sentence Stealer Rock Paper Scissors (15–20 minutes), shared by Andrea
• Details, Details, Details (30–35 minutes), shared by AnneMarie
• Why we should never let students know who is winning too early
• How to narrate the game itself so students get even more input
• What to do when a game goes off the rails (because it will!)

Pick one game, try it this week, and tell me which one your students loved.

🎲 Get Proficiency Through Play: https://teachersdiscovery.com/products/proficiency-through-play
📖 Read the blog post
📱 Connect with AnneMarie: https://senorachase.com/

📱 Connect with Andrea: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-caulfield-577196b3/?isSelfProfile=false

🎧 More low-prep games: https://growingwithproficiency.com/4-easy-end-of-year-games-to-boost-joy-and-comprehension/
🏫 Join the Spanish Teacher Academy: https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.

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¿Tienes estudiantes de herencia en tu clase y sientes que necesitas algo diferente, pero no sabes exactamente qué?

En este episodio en español converso con la Dra. Nancy Domínguez-Fret, hija de inmigrantes mexicanos, hablante de herencia, exmaestra de high school y directora del programa de formación docente en Northern Illinois University. Nancy nos cuenta cómo nació Voces que cruzan fronteras: nuestra comunidad y la identidad multilingüe, un libro de texto completamente gratis que creó con la Dra. Megan Marshall para clases de español para hablantes de herencia.

En este episodio hablamos de:

• Qué hace diferente una clase de herencia: por qué se parece más a una clase de Spanish Language Arts que a una clase de español como segunda lengua.
• Cómo dejar atrás la perspectiva de déficit: empezar por lo que nuestros estudiantes ya traen al salón.
• Diseño inverso en cada unidad: preguntas esenciales, proyecto final desde el principio e input que sirve de modelo.
• La gramática al final, y a propósito: cómo descubrir si tus estudiantes realmente necesitan una estructura antes de enseñarla.
• Cómo llevar el español fuera del salón: entrevistas a la familia, debates sobre el Spanglish y conexiones con la comunidad.
• Ideas para Español 1, 2 y 3: cómo usar este recurso cuando no tienes una clase de herencia, pero sí estudiantes de herencia.

Y lo más importante: cómo ayudar a nuestros estudiantes a sentir orgullo por su lengua, sus raíces y su comunidad.

Recursos mencionados:

• Voces que cruzan fronteras, Volumen I y II: https://spanishdeherencia.com/
• Blog del episodio

Episodios relacionados:

• Episodio 206: Lo que las familias nos enseñan sobre cómo apoyar a estudiantes de herencia, con la Dra. Bertha Delgadillo
• Episodios 79 y 81: Cómo apoyar la competencia escrita de los estudiantes de herencia, con la Dra. Alberta Gatti

Más enlaces:

• Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy: http://growingwithproficiency.com/academy
• Museo de la Herencia Hispana
• Comunidad gratis en Facebook, Growing With CI: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growingwithci
• Claudia en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claudiamelliott/

Profe de español, descarga gratis 5 leyendas latinoamericanas fascinantes y comprensibles para tu clase: https://growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas

Profe de español,

Grab this free resource and bring into your classroom 5 fascinating and comprehensible leyendas Latinoamericanas.

Go to growingwithproficiency.com/leyendas to grab your free copy.