Category: Teacher’s Tool Tips

Are your kids ready to learn something new this summer? What about introducing them to Spanish in an innovative way that includes culture, carefully scaffolded language to build proficiency, entertaining videos that teach vocabulary and grammar in a contextualized format, games specifically designed for language learning, a built-in language lab with unique recording features, and practice questions and assessments with feedback? 

Do You Need To Know Spanish As a Parent?

As a parent, you don’t even need to know Spanish. You can actually learn along with your children! FL4K has been listening to teachers with over 100 years of combined experience in the classroom to build a state-of-the-art platform for language learning for kids. While the program will eventually be offered in many other languages, we are first rolling out our homeschool Spanish curriculum. 

One of the most unique features is that the students can study eight different Spanish-speaking cultures through 40-60 social media-like posts per country featuring incredible images and fascinating cultural information that builds proficiency in the Spanish language simultaneously. 

The FL4K Homeschool Spanish Curriculum Discussed

This homeschool Spanish curriculum delves into the following categories of interculturality:  

• geography and climate, 
• people, 
• indigenous groups, 
• animals, 
• nature, 
• food, 
• art, 
• unique lodging and more

This is discussed for each culture while at the same time introducing and embedding structures and vocabulary in entertaining and pedagogically sound ways that include a lot of repetition and carefully interwoven language. 

This is a unique homeschool Spanish curriculum with innovative features that capture the Gen Z student who needs interactivity in the classroom in order to stay engaged and motivated to learn. 

Is the Spanish Homeschool Curriculum Comprehensive?

AP themes are appropriately introduced, global challenges are pitched, and suggestions for further investigation are offered. We include topics of science and engineering, as well. 

We look at how other countries are trying to save the planet and some of their accomplished citizens. Imagine your children learning about the blue whale found off the coast of Chile while at the same time learning Spanish! 

This is a homeschool Spanish curriculum like no other! Students can learn about the electric stairs in Medellín and a unique system for recycling in Costa Rica. They can learn that men knit in some cultures and that painting animals on the outside of your house is common in Colombia. Children can begin to compare cultural practices in Spanish-speaking countries with their own and think critically about these similarities and differences. 

Discussion questions are included in this homeschool Spanish curriculum along with activities to help your children practice speaking Spanish. You may have tried other digital platforms to teach your children Spanish, but this is truly a new and different approach! If you think learning Spanish while learning interesting things about Spanish-speaking countries sounds engaging, just give it a try. 

You can start by looking at the program features and how they work at FL4K.com. This is a whole homeschool Spanish curriculum for your children! Let your children check out the features online at our website! There is a lot to explore! 

Check it out soon while a good bit of summer is still looming and kids are asking what they can do for fun. Have them try learning Spanish in a very different way!

Most teachers, parents, and grandparents understand the importance of learning a second language in our globally connected world. The problem is that it is difficult to find good programs that facilitate the learning experience for kids. At FL4K, Foreign Languages FOR Kids, this is our mission. 

We have gathered a team of teachers with over 100 years of combined experience in the classroom to help us develop a state-of-the-art program that truly helps kids learn Spanish. With a long-range goal of having our single digital platform available in many languages, we have started by developing an innovative way for kids to learn Spanish. 

We know that kids love interactive learning with games, images, audio, and instant feedback, as well as the opportunity to record themselves. We have considered that learning vocabulary and grammar in a language vacuum can be a very boring and ineffective way for many kids to learn Spanish. In order to captivate the interest of kids while at the same time helping them to learn Spanish, we created a culture program that includes eight different Hispanic cultures. 

Each unit features more than 50 social media-like posts with gorgeous images, thought-provoking questions, and real-time interest polls about the geography and climate, people, sites of interest, nature, foods, indigenous groups, and global challenges of each culture. Language structures have been scaffolded in a way that naturally builds language proficiency through repetition, much like true language acquisition. 

With FL4K, kids learn Spanish at their own rate, reading and listening about all the fascinating points of interculturality designed and developed by a team of teachers. They learn ser, estar, tener, querer, poder, and me gusta while at the same time learning about the fascinating blue whale of Chile and the pink dolphin and hairless dog of Perú. 

The most effective way for you to witness the exciting features of our program which include a built-in language lab experience and games developed specifically to help kids learn Spanish is to go to our website and watch some of the demonstration videos. 

Share what you find with your students and family members! Help them to discover a brand new way to learn Spanish for kids!

Teacher Tooltip Tuesday: While you are taking a break this summer, try a new Spanish for kids app to offer you a break throughout the school year, too!

It’s summer, and you are on vacation by now, hopefully! Time to take a break! A break is exactly what I invite you to consider in your curriculum planning for next year! Take a look at the features of a state-of-the-art Spanish for kids app called FL4K, to ease your workload and engage your students in learning Spanish in a challenging, engaging, and extremely innovative way.

Why choose FL4K?

There is no program that will supplant the importance of the teacher that reinforces the concepts taught online with hands-on activities, projects, pair activities, etc. Students always need a variety of activities to practice the real-world language skills that they will be learning with this Spanish for kids app.

Nevertheless, FL4K, a Spanish for kids app, includes Spanish games specifically designed to build language proficiency, dialogues with built-in language lab features, practice questions with images, audio, and instant feedback to delight kids and reinforce learning!

Cultural Activities

This Spanish for kids app also includes a culture program that teaches students about eight different Hispanic cultures using carefully scaffolded language structures that build language proficiency.

The app allows students to progress at their own rate, reading and listening about all the fascinating points of interculturality designed and developed by a team of teachers with over 100 years of combined experience in the classroom.

Students will discover interesting facts about the geography and climate, people, sites of interest, native animals, foods, indigenous groups, global challenges, etc. of each culture.

Culture and Language Learning Together

While they are learning about Hispanic culture, they are being challenged to build their language proficiency skills. Instead of learning Spanish in a vacuum, students are learning about cultures and language at the same time. The language learning is so subtle and natural that the students aren’t even aware of how successfully they are building language proficiency.

Three levels into the program, most of the language is in the target language because of how practical language is so carefully and repetitively embedded in the program.

We are a dedicated group of teachers and techies working to provide you with a Spanish program that has done all the hard work for you: we put all the resources that you and your students need into a single platform at your fingertips, plan lessons so you won’t have to, and provide the flexibility to teach however works best for you!

We want you and your students to be excited to start Spanish class in the fall with renewed ideas for how to make learning fun and much easier on you! Take a look and let us know what you think!

Whether you are teaching children or adults, vocabulary needs to be taught according to a communicative hierarchy and in a context. In other words, you need to teach chunks of language that lend themselves to helping students be successful at speaking Spanish in the real world. 

Outdated textbooks provide long lists of isolated vocabulary and grammatical structures, NOT functional language. In addition, teachers (sadly) aren’t trained in building proficiency skills that will serve their students in actually using the target language to communicate. 

Haven’t you heard many language students complain about how they studied a language for years and can’t say a word? This is the result that we want to avoid in teaching a world language! 

So, how do you determine what structures and easy Spanish vocabulary words to teach kids for practical use? 

Think about chunks of language that students need to function like:  Where is it? (¿Dónde está?), I like that (Me gusta); I am thirsty/hungry/tired/hot/cold (Tengo sed/hambre/sueño/calor/frío); I want… (Quiero); I have…(Tengo). 

The truth of the matter is that teachers need to be trained in the basics of how to assess language proficiency according to ACTFL oral proficiency standards. Once a teacher understands the criteria for the levels of development from Novice to Advanced, the process of teaching becomes much more effective. 

If a teacher has a group of beginning Spanish students (Novice Low), he/she needs to be able to assess what students CAN DO at this level and know what they should be able to do in order to move to the next level of proficiency (Novice Mid). 

Once the teacher is adept at identifying the skills required for each level (can do’s), the teacher can begin to teach more intentionally with concrete goals for the students to move them forward on the proficiency continuum. 

Training is the key! 

Easy Spanish vocabulary words to teach kids include putting the easy Spanish words in meaningful contexts that help students to become more communicative. It is a bit of an art to teach this way and totally wreaks havoc with traditional methods. 

The strength of this kind of teaching, however, is that students start developing confidence and skills right away. They no longer memorize long lists of vocabulary, prove their skills with grammar quizzes, and promptly forget everything. No! They practice speaking every day using functional chunks of language. Finally, proficiency is not based on talent, but on practice and hard work, the result of which is a practical skill. 

Language learning is for everyone, not just the gifted and talented.  

As a retired Spanish teacher trained in ACTFL oral proficiency standards, I began working for a company (fl4k.com) that was already doing a great job of teaching easy Spanish vocabulary words to kids within a context through videos, games, and practice questions, with hands-on activities. 

What was missing was the interculturality piece, so a team of teachers who are trained in teaching language according to proficiency standards gathered to inform the company about how to do this best. We have created a culture program that provides fascinating content about nine different Spanish-speaking cultures all presented to kids in a single interactive digital platform that includes dialogues with recording features, practice questions, real-time polling, and features carefully scaffolded language structures and vocabulary in a context. 

Even though the program includes a lot of bells and whistles that appeal to kids of all ages, the best feature of the program is the emphasis on helping students build language proficiency that lasts and actually functions. The easy Spanish vocabulary words to teach kids are all embedded in cultural posts in a social media-like format that is very appealing to the Gen Z student! 

The easy Spanish vocabulary is given context and therefore becomes memorable. Students need to learn to ask questions (Who?/¿Quién?; What?/¿Qué?; Where?/¿Dónde?; When?/¿Cuándo?; Why? /¿Por qué?; How?/¿Cómo?; How much?/¿Cuánto?) and connect sentences (and/y; also/también; however/sin embargo; therefore/por lo tanto; because/porque, etc. 

Sailing through textbooks with complicated grammar formulas and having students memorize long lists of words just are not an effective way to TEACH students to actually speak another language with lasting results. 

Check out what we are doing at FL4K to help you help your students truly learn to speak another language.

Summer is almost here! Downtime is on the way! Refresh, relax, and find ways to enrich your interculturality curriculum! Is this often an afterthought that finally you need to do something about this summer?

Don’t reinvent the wheel

I am part of a teacher team that is creating an interculturality curriculum that can supplement any Spanish language program K-12. Imagine what fun it is after 43 years in the classroom to help write about Hispanic culture in the most appealing way possible for Gen Z students.

That’s right! This is an interactive digital platform with real-time polls, discussion questions, built-in language lab recording features, and social media-like posts that feature super fascinating intercultural information about nature, art, music, local artists and citizens, sites of interest, history, global challenges, adventures, etc., all with Novice-Intermediate language carefully scaffolded using high-frequency language that is repeated and repeated until it is like second nature for kids to use the target language naturally.

How long does the program take to work through?

Each level of study includes 40-50 intercultural social media-like posts that are short paragraphs about high-interest topics for kids of all ages. There are corresponding interactive practice questions and dialogues,  games specifically designed to build language proficiency, hands-on activities, discussion questions, music, recipes, and pertinent videos with each level of study.

Of the eight levels (Hispanic countries) in the program, a teacher could get through 3 to 4 maximum in a year, depending on the number of contact hours/per week in their school’s language program.

A Flex program for lower elementary students, for example, would only be able to tackle 2 to 3 of the cultural units in a year while a Spanish I and II class at the middle or high school level might be able to complete four units of study, two per semester.

The all-in-one tool for your teacher toolkit

The coolest part about our program is that it includes a curriculum guide, is customizable, is ACTFL aligned, and it is not a textbook! It is all in a single digital platform.

At the very least, check it all out at our website: fl4k.com, and see how we are trying to create the program that we have always wanted ourselves with the intention of saving you time – while at the same time ensuring that your curriculum is interculturally rich and engaging for students today!

Don’t reinvent the wheel this summer! Study our website and see what might work best for you! Reach out to us and schedule a demo or sign up for our free summer trial! Check out the perks for signing up now!

In the last three weeks I have explored the first three stages of group participation and development: forming, storming, and norming, all essential developmental phases in preparation for the final phase, performing!

Most of us have been doing this throughout our teaching careers in the form of group projects or presentations at the end of a unit to give students the opportunity to show what they CAN DO!!

However, if teachers are not careful, this phase can be wrought with complications. Students need to be shepherded through the stages of getting to know each other (forming), wrestling with different personalities (storming), and learning to accept their differences (norming) in order to maximize their ability to be successful as a team. Once a group of students has figured out how to work together, a teacher can assign group projects and presentations.

Group Participation

The age-old problem will still be ensuring that each member of the group participates equally in completing the work. Inevitably, there are some group members that care more about their grade than others and end up doing all the work while resenting less productive group members. I hope that it will not be discouraging for me to admit that I never mastered this issue after 43 years of teaching! Rather, I hope you will be challenged to find new ways to tackle this inequity.

One idea is to make sure that peer evaluation is an important part of the group grade. Help students hold each other accountable by requiring them to evaluate each other anonymously. Build in time elements that require each group member to speak for a certain number of minutes. Consider as many parameters as possible that ensure participation from all!

Presentation Engagement

Even after you have your groups engaged and performing, there is the additional problem of keeping the rest of the class engaged. I have found that group presentations can kill overall Gen Z student engagement in a heartbeat.

Since an important part of building proficiency in a language is learning to ask questions, I suggest requiring every student not presenting to ask follow-up questions. Keep track of how many they ask and factor this data into their participation grade.

You might have students in their seats fill out information about the presentations to keep them focused and engaged. Questions could be general: Mention 2-3 things that you learned; What was good about the presentation?; How could the presentation be better?, etc.

Group Projects

Here are just a few of my favorite group projects ideas:

1. Have a small group of students plan their version of “El Camino de Santiago,” a well-known pilgrimage that ends in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
   1. Students have to research which route they will take, how long they will walk, describe two people they met on the trail, the food they ate, and 2-3 experiences they had, and present their walk to the class. This can be such a fun project for creative students!
   2. What is sad about Gen Z students is they don’t tap into their creativity. They just want to get this project done and get into reading their next social media posts. Be sure to frame this project as an amazing opportunity to learn about “El Camino” and plan a trip that may very well be a reality for them one day when studying abroad during their college days! ( I take every opportunity to entice them to do this!!!)
2. Create a campaign for a cause and compete for financial support like the TV show “Shark Tank.”
   1. In small groups, students decide on a cause (actual or original) and present the rationale for supporting their cause. Each student has fake money to put toward the cause that interests them most.
   2. This results in a competition for which group is able to promote their cause most successfully.
   3. The project can be adapted to a product that relates to a particular unit. For example, students could be charged with creating a fitness program as a culminating activity for a health unit.
3. Hispanic murals and muralists from different cities around the world.
   1. Each group could present their research with a slideshow that features this amazing form of street art and an explanation of the symbolism.
   2. As a final step, the group has to create their own mural and explain its significance.
   3. This can be a digital creation or a sketch, depending on the artistic talent of the group!
4. Creating stories around famous Hispanic artwork.
   1. I especially liked to do this with Frida Kahlo as a way of introducing a whole study of her life and works.
   2. Small groups choose one of her paintings and without knowing anything about her, they create a story around the images. After learning more, the same students present the real story behind the same work of art. It’s a fun way to stimulate creativity and engage students in art appreciation.
5. Famous Families.
   1. In small groups, students research a famous person’s family to introduce to the class.
   2. There can be a certain amount of intrigue with this since many times we don’t know much about the family of a famous actor, singer, artist, or sports figure.
   3. I like to make sure that students find out about pets, too, if possible.
   4. There are many variations on this project, too. In small groups, students can create their own families and present them to the class.

There are endless project and presentation possibilities that can be designed to promote both interculturality and language proficiency in a way that is fun and engaging for today’s digital natives. Start imagining a few of your own as a culminating activity for a unit that incorporates vocabulary, structures, and cultural knowledge!

And one more bit of advice… be sure to structure the project with specific criteria and expectations. Review exactly how the project will be graded. I like to use rubrics that outline what is entailed in order to get the A, B, C, etc. This is the secret to getting stellar products!

FL4K

If you are interested in an amazing way to supplement your curriculum with rich interculturality, check out FL4K. The toolkit that includes culture posts in an Instagram-like format and proficiency-based games and dialogues serve as a great preparation for discussion, research, and projects or presentations! 

We’ll be back next week with another tool tip. In the meantime, sign up for a free trial with FL4K!

Last week I mentioned some activities that can be used in the World Language classroom during the “forming” phase of group development. This week, I will address the next phase, “storming,” the time when students may begin to share differing opinions and even compete with each other in the classroom.

Teachers can provide time and space for students to wrestle with ideas and even disagree, ultimately building trust, in preparation for the norming and performing phases of group development. 

The storming phase can be both controversial and fun at the same time if the teacher helps to monitor the group development in a healthy way.

Students can get to know more than the basic facts about each other. They can begin to play competitive games and participate in polls, and even discussions, that may force them to contend with differences of opinion. When conflicts arise, teachers must guide students to listen to each other and maintain respectful behavior toward one another at all times.  

Consider digital games for this phase of group development. 

Quizlet Live

Many of you already play Quizlet Live in the classroom. You can mix up the teams every few rounds and have individual students keep track of how many times they have won. The student with the most wins at the end of class might get their name posted on a leaderboard (poster and marker) for the Quizlet Live Champions.

In my classroom, this was very low stakes and fun for students. Usually, we had different winners every week and then, the rivalry would start to see how many times each one could be featured on the board.

This works well for the “storming” phase because the students get competitive and begin shouting with excitement all in very low-key fun!

Kahoot

Kahoot is another good competitive game in the classroom that can be used for review. It always amazes me how students come alive when they can compete with each other. You can put them in teams to eliminate embarrassment or intimidation. A lively round of Kahoot can create just the positive energy you are looking for in your 21st-century classroom! 

Speed Dating

Speed Dating works well for this phase of group development, too. Students can line up in two parallel lines with one line rotating as they exchange information about a cultural topic that they are studying.

The questions can be controversial in nature and pertain to a very specific set of vocabulary and expressions. The students can prepare ahead of time what they do to help protect the planet and why they think it is important. Then in lines or concentric circles, one group can move, each time sharing their information with a different student in the class. 

Projecting a picture and having the students guess what is going on in it can lead to some differences of opinion. When they finish arguing about their ideas, the teacher can tell them what was actually happening in the picture. This allows students to disagree in a fun and friendly way. 

FL4K

At FL4K we have several activities built into the program that promote the opportunity to both compete and express their own opinions. We have digitized the old-fashioned game of Fly Swatter into a modern game that builds oral proficiency in an engaging and intentional way.  Students get a digital flyswatter and can compete against each other to swat as many correct flies/answers as possible while simultaneously building language proficiency skills. 

Another FL4K feature with the culture program is a built-in polling option in real-time. Students can register their opinion about something pertaining to the culture they are learning and then find out how many in the class agree with them and how many do not.

The teacher can then lead a discussion about the polling topic. For example, after learning about the many waterfalls in Costa Rica, students can answer a poll that gives them the option to say whether they would like to swim under a waterfall or not. Students can then share why they might be interested or fearful.

We have 30-40 culture posts per unit with polling questions for many. It keeps students interested and engaged in practicing the language in a natural way.

Early in our language program, students learn “tener” expressions and can quite capably talk about what they are and are not afraid of. This can stimulate good conversation and again, get kids to handle controversial topics in a healthy way.  

What ways can you think of to create energy and excitement in your classroom that help students learn to compete, communicate, and accept differences of opinion with a priority of respecting each other? Have fun with the “storming” phase of group development!

Next week we will enjoy exploring the next phase of “norming.” In the meantime, sign up for a free trial with FL4K!

Be, Belong, Become. Make this a motto for building an all-inclusive community in your classroom!

The World Language classroom is a place where students should BE accepted for who they are, BELONG to a supportive community, and BECOME the best language learner possible!

Unfortunately, the World Language classroom is often a place where intimidation can be very high! Some students naturally have better pronunciation, some have an easier time understanding and applying complicated grammar matrices, and some are extroverted with no fear of making mistakes or speaking in front of others.

The World Language classroom can be scary for the introverted or intimidated! You need to consider giving every student the best chance possible to succeed, and that takes learning a little about building community and practicing it every day in the classroom. 

The following suggestions are not scientifically proven; they are simply things I learned on the job!

Give students the opportunity to get to know each other every day in your classroom!

Use small group and partner activities to reduce the intimidation factor. Mix them up randomly, too. Don’t allow them to always be with their friends. This leaves the shy students out and makes for a really miserable language learning experience for them. 

Encourage support for every student by not calling out their mistakes in front of everyone.

I was once one of those who had to publicly correct every verb form or improper use of ser vs. estar. What a ridiculous, uninviting way to teach!

Let those mistakes go as long as there is communication happening. Once students have heard the correct language chunks enough, they will just begin to use them correctly.

In my opinion, we are so wrong to call out every grammar mistake every day for every child. It is discouraging and makes them terrified to ever speak the language! How antithetical is this to what we want to do in our classrooms?

Give students positive feedback!

Make it up! If they draw beautifully, comment on that! Find something good about every child and praise it!

Let your students know that you appreciate them in all their wonder, even if their wonder does not include being talented in learning a second language in your classroom. Connect with your students and let them know that you don’t judge their whole being on whether they are successful in your classroom!

This will go a long way toward opening their spirit to the possibility of having a positive language learning experience. 

Measure students against themselves!

If a student can only get two words out the first time they speak in the class, praise that, and encourage them to get three or four out the next time! Let them know that they are making progress and that you have noticed it!

I have taught kids who stutter, have dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, suffer from severe anxiety and depression, are painfully shy, struggle with family issues, just don’t get it, etc.

It was always incumbent on ME to make a comfortable learning situation for them! And guess what? It was always so rewarding to watch those challenged kids shine! And they can and will if you build the right community for them!

Make your classroom about the learning COMMUNITY and not about you and your frustrations with them!

Tune into your kids and hone your community-building skills.

Study Bruce Tuckman’s group development skills of forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Starting with these methods will help build an all-inclusive community in your classroom. In the next few weeks, I will share specific activities for the World Language classroom for each of these stages of group development based on a workshop that my friend and colleague, Elena Giudice, has brilliantly created.

Elena and I are now part of a teacher team that is helping to write curriculum for an amazing language program for kids! Check out FL4K.com to see the latest design for an innovative and interactive way of engaging kids in learning Spanish (for now and many more languages to come)! 

Sign up here for our free trial and see what you think! And if you’ve missed any of my past tips, you can read them here!