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    Artes de Lenguaje

    Spanish Proficiency Exercises is a compilation of brief video clips in which native speakers of Spanish from various locations throughout Latin America and Spain demonstrate various language tasks. The objective of the exercises is to provide students of Spanish with the necessary tools to be able to talk about the same topics in Spanish. In order to do this, Spanish Proficiency Exercises contains five major components. First, there is a simplified video clip. This simplified version is scripted, the native speakers talk slower, and he or she uses simpler words and shorter phrasing. Second, there are video clips of native speakers who also perform proficiency tasks. These clips are not scripted. What the native speakers say is what they really said. Some may talk fast, others talk slow, and some have specific regional nuances. Click on the link below:

    Spanish Proficiency Exercises

    Spanish Resources

    News and other media platforms are available in the links below.

    Radio Ambulante NPR

    RTVE

    SciDevNet

    Noticias ONU

    Use Quizlet to guide your study of language:

    QUIZLET

    In mastering student skills in World Language and preparing Seal of Biliteracy candidates, consider the following resources:

     

    INTERPERSONAL MODE

    • Sign a contract on the first day of school promising to use only the target language within your classroom walls.
    • Survey one another. (Note: Link downloads a 114 KB pdf.)
    • Respond to emails that require them to use the vocabulary in a real way. (Note: Link downloads a 131 KB pdf.)
    • Have conversations in groups of two about a theme you give them. After their discussion, have them present to the class about what their partner told them.
    • Use Twitter as a story-writing activity. You tweet the first line and have students tweet a certain number of lines over a determined period of time, then read the finished story in class. These never disappoint.
    • Speak with each other on a topic while you observe.
    • Work in pairs on an information gap activity. Each student has some information they need to share with their partner, and the two of them work to share their information with each other.
    • Find and discuss the differences between the two related photos.
    • Play 20 Questions. For a lower-level course, you could give them 20 questions to ask one another. This works great for nearly every possible unit theme.
    • Participate in simple conversation days. I find that my students really enjoy these, and they serve as a great way to wrap up a unit. These work best with the desks arranged in a large circle. As homework the night before, ask students to write down questions for the group that relates to the unit theme.
    • Ignite student discussion using Flipgrid.com.
    • Encourage students to have silent conversations using Google Docs. Choose a theme and have each student select a color for their responses. Make sure they share the document with you too, so that you can monitor and comment.

     

    PRESENTATIONAL MODE