This interactive, hands-on French activity introduces students to the artist Claude Monet and his artistic style. The activity instructions and resources are in English, making it suitable for novice low to novice high French learners. This particular activity also connects directly with the national art standards allowing students to make direct connections between their French class and other subject areas. Students start by exploring Monet's background and then watch a short video clip about his artistic style. Students are then guided through an activity in which they apply Monet's techniques to create their own works of art.
Students will research a holiday in the target language to identify key information and compare and contrast traditions of the target culture(s) to those here in the United States.
This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.
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This unique coloring book provides one page for each letter of the alphabet. On each page, students are introduced to an item of importance to Central America such as animals, artifacts, or art. This resource is bilingual so there is a set in both English and Spanish, along with activities that introduce students to various aspects of Central America and its history. In the elementary classroom, consider providing each student a different letter of the alphabet to color and share with the class. Then, hang all letters up around the room as a constant reminder of the key products from this area of the word.
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Students will draw a snowman and identify colors, clothing, and body parts of the snowman. Students will answer simple questions about the drawing.
This activity was created as a result of the World Language COS Resource Development Summit.
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In this novice-mid to novice-high activity, students will participate in an interpersonal conversation as they share details about their daily routines. This lesson provides a blank schedule for students to fill out before comparing their schedules with peers.
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This novice low to novice mid-French activity allows students to gather information from four different heritage French speakers: Franck, J-C, Stephanie, and Virginie. Students are asked to gather basic information pertaining to weather, this weekend, next weekend, and vacations. After using interpretive listening skills to gather this information, students record their findings on a printable worksheet. Each section is separated allowing students to focus on one task at a time while listening to the provided links. The links to the interviews used in this activity are posted in the comment section below. Each video provides optional French and English transcripts.
Key Grammar Points in these activities include near future, to go, prepositions with places.
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This lesson incorporates an interactive image created in Genial.ly to explore three works by Pablo Neruda. Working together, students will listen to and analyze the lyrics of each poem to compare and contrast the themes and symbols of each.
This activity is a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.
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This website offers direct links to a variety of German-language newspapers from around Europe. These authentic materials in the target language were published for German speakers and provide lots of interpretative reading practice for students as they explore current events from the German-speaking world. Resources are well organized and provided from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, and Switzerland.
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This ready-to-use printable is a guide for a novice level country research project. Students are each assigned a Spanish speaking country and then asked to use the printout as a guide to investigate their specific country. Students look up demographic and cultural information including capital, population, currency, national symbols, traditional foods, and current events. The printable includes a location to draw the country's flag and another to draw out a map of the country including key geographical features such as rivers, mountain ranges, lakes, and neighboring countries.
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This resource provides 6 separate video clips of French speakers, each of which illustrates the task of expressing hypotheses. Students use interpretive listening skills to identify main ideas and examine how the conditional and past conditional tenses are formed and used through these authentic resources. The videos were prepared for intermediate and advanced level learners but could be used with novice learners as a way to introduce them to authentic language. Each video clip provides a French-language transcript and links to grammar reviews and activities for the concepts that are heard in the clip. The concepts covered include the conditional, conditional past, and si clauses.
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This novice high to intermediate mid-French activity allows students to gather information from four different heritage French speakers: Franck, J-C, Stephanie, and Virginie. Students are asked to gather information as the speakers describe their future using the future and conditional tenses. This activity is split into two different audio sections that can be used as a group or separately. There are also French questions to aid in interpersonal conversations as students discuss their future plans. The links to the interviews used in this activity are posted in the comment section below. Each video provides optional French and English transcripts.
Key grammar points in these audio clips include: Future Tense, Conditional Tense
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This novice mid to novice high interactive activity requires students to comprehend a set of instructions written in the informal tú form. Students then present their own informal commands as they complete their posters. Over 30 unfinished poster printouts are included with this activity each fashioned after the popular "Stay Calm And...." posters. These should be placed around the room or throughout the school. Students will follow a set of teacher-prepared instructions written with informal commands in order to locate their posters. Once they are successful they are to return to the starting location and complete their poster for display in the classroom.
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This is a novice mid to novice high ASL activity in which students describe clothing worn by others. Students start with a fashion show as each student takes turns describing the outfit of another. This can be kept simple, describing what students are wearing at school or students can plan more elaborate outfits. If time allows, give students a bag of inexpensive supplies and ask them to create an outfit in 30 minutes or less. After the fashion show, students play a game similar to the board game Guess Who. Students describe the outfit worn by one person as well as their physical characteristics to see if their partner can guess who they are describing. Note: This lesson was prepared originally to be completed in a virtual environment with students using breakout rooms online. The activities can easily be replicated in the face-to-face classroom.
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This novice low to novice high grammar game helps Spanish learners 'see' how the target language is formed so that they can make connections between the Spanish language and their own. This game will work for any tense but the instructions are specifically geared toward reflexive present tense conjugations. Students work in groups to create sentences. A die is rolled to determine the subject of each sentence. Then, students match the verb stem to the correct verb ending based on the subject determined by the die. Finally, students use this newly constructed verb to write a sentence using the verb and current vocabulary.
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This printable Spanish poster is a unique way to reinforce emotions and feelings in novice low to novice mid-Spanish language classrooms. Teachers can choose to print a copy for each student or print a large copy and display it as a poster in the classroom. This poster allows students to reinforce vocabulary while seeing how the verbs ser and estar work in context, comparing these to the way the verb 'to be' is used in English. Students can use this resource to vary their responses when asked 'How are you?'
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This Spanish language activity allows students to use their clothing vocabulary skills to show off their creative side. Students design clothing items for a store or store catalog and use presentational language skills to identify the items and their descriptions. The addition of sizes and prices will encourage students to explore the differences between shopping in the US and another country. The lesson link includes a student instructional page and a pre-made rubric to assist with grading. This activity could easily be adapted for use in any language classroom.
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This intermediate-low to intermediate-high Spanish activity encourages students to push their vocabulary skills to the next level. Students play an interactive game in which they draw one of 30 topics and then spend 90 seconds writing down as many adjectives that they can associate with this topic. After 90 seconds, students compare notes. Students only receive points if no one else has a specific word. (Similar to the scoring in the game Scattergories.) If a word is duplicated in the classroom then no one gets the point for that word. This encourages students to recall less common words, a skill that will assist in improving their overall speaking and writing skills.
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This learning activity is created to follow Social Studies and Language Arts standards however, the content makes a perfect connection to the Latin literary figures addressed in the Latin standards for the state of Alabama. The activities are in English but provide insight into "The Metamorphoses" by Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid). It includes guiding questions, background information, an essay-based assessment, and multiple extensions that allow students to compare "The Metamorphoses" with later works of art and modern poetry.
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This novice low French activity guides students through a series of greetings and introductions. Students start with a warm up that asks them to create a conversation using a series of pre-printed cards. Once students decide the correct order of the cards they are to act out the conversation presented on the cards. Students are then asked to each select a card that identifies the role they will play in the activity. Pretending to be the person on the card, students will move around the room introducing themselves and greeting others. Students are also given the opportunity to select a 'time of day' card to indicate whether the conversation should take place in the morning, noon, or evening. This allows students to vary their conversations as they move around the room. As an extension activity, teachers can demonstrate proper gestures used in greetings and have students include these in their conversations.
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This activity is useful for intermediate Spanish learners but can be very beneficial to heritage language learners as well. The poem presented in the lesson is a bridge between two languages. Students whose native language is Spanish and who are English language learners will be able to experience the languages together in one poem. Students whose native language is not Spanish but is other than English will experience a model for writing from their own complex identities in two languages. The activity includes a detailed explanation of the lesson preparation as well as step-by-step instructions for guiding students through the activities and optional extensions. Students begin by writing about someone or something they miss. Intermediate-level Spanish students should write in Spanish. Students will then read and listen to the poem before participating in a group discussion that ties the poem to their original work.
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In this activity, students will use the preterit tense to tell others about things that have happened in their past. Using the free online tool provided by Read Write Think, students can easily create a graphically appealing timeline that features photos and vocabulary relevant to their individual lives.
This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.
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This English language resource introduces novice low and intermediate low to intermediate high Spanish students to 30 different Hispanic Americans that have helped shaped the history of the United States. The provided link takes students to a digital museum where they can learn about each person through memorabilia, videos, photos, and more. This site is the perfect place for students to start as they prepare presentations about these influential people. With 30 people to choose from, there are enough resources for each student (or pair of students) in a class to select one. Students can use this site to start their investigations into their chosen person as they use the target language to describe the importance of influential figures from the target culture, past and present. To meet the community standards, students could each create a poster or visible display highlighting their person's role in US history. The displays can be shared with the school or community during Hispanic Heritage month to promote the target culture.
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In this activity, students will investigate a number of places in Madrid (or any city) and use directional commands to get their partner from place to place. The students will take turns giving directions and tracing their route. The students must also make a comparison about the places they “visited” while in Madrid and a similar location in the U.S.
This activity was created as a result of the World Languages Course of Study Resource Development Summit.
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This Spanish unit provides activities to go along with the TPRS book Esperanza by Carol Gaab. The unit resources are available free but the book must be purchased. This linked unit includes a pre- and post-assessment that measures how well students feel they can meet the Can Do Statements associated with the unit. Activities in this unit include KWL using Padlet, Smashboards (with rubrics) to illustrate each chapter and an interactive choice board that provides a variety of differentiated assessment options. The unit also includes a project using Thinglink in which students research places in Guatemala and present their findings in a formal presentation. Throughout the unit, students will participate in interpersonal conversations, presentational writing, presentational speaking, grammar explorations, cultural explorations of products, practices, and perspectives, and connect with other classes as they explore topics like the Civil War in Guatemala, immigration, amnesty, and civil rights.
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This intermediate low to intermediate mid French musical activity uses the music of La Compagnie Créole to explore the celebration and costumes of Carnival through the song Le Bal Masqué. The included PDF starts with asking students to discuss background information on Mardi Gras and Carnival. After listening to the song students check for understanding by answering comprehension questions. They wrap up the activity by using the conditional tense to describe how they would dress if they were to attend a Carnival celebration. The French lyrics for this song are included in the provided pdf.
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This novice-mid to novice-high Spanish activity encourages students to gather information from heritage speakers about how various holidays are celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Students gather information from the video recordings and compare their findings to celebration practices from within their own culture and eventually plan a party of their own. This full class period activity includes various stages requiring students to work individually, in pairs, and in groups.
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This advanced-level Spanish project-based learning (PBL) unit challenges students to work in groups as they examine a problem, investigate the situation, and propose a solution. The unit includes a calendar pacing out each of the 8 class days required for the PBL. At the end of each class period students are provided a self-evaluation to reflect on tasks accomplished and plan for their next steps. All necessary resources regarding the presented problem as well as investigative resources are included. (Click on the Lecturas iniciales link within the resource to access a Google folder with printable resources). At the end of the lesson, students present their findings orally and in writing following the provided guidelines and rubrics. A bibliography is provided to assist students in researching the problem. This PBL specifically focuses on views toward Catalan succession in Spain.
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This unique resource challenges student perceptions of the world and causes them to look at the world from a different perspective. The south up map forces students to examine how countries relate to each other geographically. It also opens discussions into ethnocentric thinking and culturally biased perceptions. This particular resource can be copied for individual use or printed as a poster to hang in the classroom. Before introducing this map, ask students to quickly sketch a world map on a sheet of paper. Ask them to describe this map (in English or target language depending on level). Then, show them this map but hide the commentary paragraphs. Ask them to share why they think this map is correct and/or incorrect. Finally, share the commentary that is printed on the resource and have students discuss their thoughts on the presented idea. This is a fun activity to do at the start of language learning to remind students that one must be opened minded and willing to look at things from another viewpoint if they want to try and understand cultures different than their own.
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This resource provides 3 separate video clips of French speakers, each of which illustrates the task of talking about future events. Students use interpretive listening skills to identify main ideas and examine how the future is formed and used through these authentic resources. The videos were prepared for intermediate and advanced level learners but could be used with novice learners as a way to introduce them to authentic language. Each video clip provides a French-language transcript and links to grammar reviews and activities for the concepts that are heard in the clip. The concepts covered include: regular simple future and irregular simple future
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This intermediate mid to intermediate-high Spanish activity introduces students to the Guaraní people group in Paraguay. The Guaraní have their own language, separate from Spanish, and are struggling to preserve this language. Students start this activity by reading about the Guaraní and their language as well as the language challenges that are present in the current day. Students then respond to a series of comprehension questions to check for understanding. The next steps encourage students to research more about the Guaraní on their own and offer a video to show students how the language differs from Spanish. Finally, students are asked to compare the challenges faced by the Guaraní with those of indigenous groups in the US such as the Navajo or Cherokee.
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This Spanish language video was created specifically for novice mid to novice high students. It introduces students to a variety of technology-related vocabulary by identifying and explaining various parts of a computer or laptop. This resource connects easily with Alabama's Digital Literacy standards. A printable transcript is provided for teacher or student use. The provided link relies on Latin American Spanish but an option to view a Spain version is included. Open the Guía Didáctica to access a set of printable activities that can be used by students as they watch and work with this video resource.
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This novice low to novice mid-Chinese activity reviews common radicals with students. Students start by watching a short video that shows how radicals are used to form other words. Then, students play Bingo to practice the radicals that they have learned. The teacher holds up one of the 24 pre-printed radical cards. Students each have one of 10 different pre-printed bingo boards. All necessary resources to play this game are included except for Bingo card markers. Beans, buttons, coins, or any other small item will work as a game marker. Teachers can also put the cards in sheet protectors so students can write on them with dry-erase markers.
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This resource offers a list of 180 questions that cover a variety of Spanish proficiency from novice mid to intermediate mid. This diverse list of questions can be used at the start of class as a bellringer to practice presentational writing or speaking skills. If the class focus is writing, students should take no more than 5 minutes to write freely about the assigned topic. If the class focus is speaking, students should take 2 minutes to gather their thoughts then use an online recorder to record their response. Responses should be adjusted in length based on level. Finally, allow students one minute to reflect on their work. If the class focus is on interpersonal speaking then students should work in pairs to discuss the assigned topic for no more than 5 minutes.
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This novice low activity is a great introduction to ASL for elementary-aged students. The original lesson plan was created for enhancing reading comprehension in regular classroom settings. However, this approach is a perfect way to connect ASL with Language Arts standards. There are eight vocabulary words that appear in the humorous book Sam's Sandwich, all of which students learn to sign in American Sign Language. The signs are first taught and then the students sign the vocabulary words each time they hear them in the text. Extension activities encourage students to learn more vocabulary words in ASL. Note: Teachers will need access to a copy of Sam's Sandwich by David Pehlam (Dutton Juvenile Publishers, 1991).
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This Latin activity introduces students to the differences between reading in Latin and reading in English while emulating how Latin students learned to read text. It offers two samples of familiar English texts printed in a fashion similar to ancient Latin. The first is a segment of "Cat in the Hat" as well as a segment from "To Kill a Mockingbird." As students read these selections they look for differences and similarities between the reading process in Latin and English. The link suggests that students finish the activity by looking at a sample of Virgil's Aeneid to discuss learning to read in ancient times versus modern times.