Many of us are breaking away from the textbook to give students a more authentic language learning experience. A book is never BAD, but there are so many resources just a click away!
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Use REAL pictures!
Instead of this…
How about this?
Get them thinking! What’s the comma mean? Lots of seafood… Hmm, where might this restaurant be located?
Lastly… This might be painful… (I know, I’ve used it too!)
Instead of this…
Here students can still learn ingredients, but also see and learn a little bit of the world!
Don’t wait til August to update your resources…Try to find 1 new resource a day!
You (and your future students) will be so glad you did!
Love this!
I LOVE this…too bad my 8th grade students this year complain that they aren’t learning anything when I bring in authentic materials. It has been a battle EVERY time. I have spent soooo many unpaid hours researching and finding just the perfect material for them (and copy your awesome lessons and techniques from this website & bought your RWH from Teachers Pay Teachers), and now I’m disheartened because they don’t want it & complain constantly. I even tried showing them a super fun tv show made in Spain…(Extra en Espanol), and they griped!!
THIS is the legacy the previous teacher left me because of his workbook/book only method. And guess what…I gave up. My stress level was so high from the constant battle, I have made them packets & we do grammar lessons and they take notes & memorize a list of words. I’m withering in there. But at least now I have peace. UGH!
My 6th & 7th graders are another story! They LOVE what I bring in & are so enthusiastic….then again, they have only had me for Spanish so they don’t even know what the textbook looks like…mua ha ha ha!! :))
I’m sorry it has been a struggle with the older ones! They don’t know how good they have it! Sounds like attitudes are different with the new group! Sometimes you just have to wait it out with a tough group… other times… ask them what they are curious about. Why don’t they like the “culture”?
(I’m going to do a research study on how to change negative opinions on other cultures and create more open-minded students!)
Oh my goodness… I could have written your entry myself! I struggle with this too! Last semester, I worked from 7:30a.m.- 10p.m. 6-7 days a week (a TON of unpaid hours, extreme stress, and sacrificed personal activities/family time) to transform my Spanish 1 curriculum and use authentic resources and hands-on learning instead of being glued to the textbooks, and I felt like it went pretty well, but the kids begged and begged, “Can we PLEASE just have worksheets?” I couldn’t believe it. I gave up too. Why did I put in that much time if the kids aren’t any more engaged in that type of lesson?! This semester when we went back to the books, some of them begged to do the other way again. And as much as I would have loved to have said, “YES!!” I don’t have enough personal time to devote to it this semester to make it happen. I look forward to giving it another go next year though!
I realized part of the difficulty was in my approach. In hindsight it would have been better to change one lesson a week and gradually ease into it rather than completely build everything from scratch all at once! I also realized that as amazing as all the ideas on this blog are, these gals are teaching at much larger schools than me and have far less preps. I have 6 preps a day! I can’t use ALL my planning time for one class! It has to be a more gradual change for me. I am still super-thankful for all the ideas, insight, and inspiration I find here, but I know I have to do a better job of adapting it to work for me in my situation so I don’t burn myself out to the point I don’t even want to teach anymore (I was almost there by the end of last semester =(.)
Good luck to you! And to all you foreign language teachers who are in our same boat, good luck!!
For my first year of teaching I had the same exact problem! My Spanish 1 students were excited and enjoyed the authentic materials while my Spanish 2 students hated using authentic resources. Luckily, this year they all enjoy the tidbits that I bring in.
Thanks for the camaraderie!! I think after reading your replies, the answer to my situation is in the word “tidbits” as opposed to overhaul.
My next focus will be how to squeeze it ALL these tidbits in…
* Authentic materials (songs, commercials, shows, video clips with MovieTalk, advertisements, magazine articles, guest speakers, children’s books, etc)
* TPRS (stories with personalized Q&A, circling, yada yada)
* Textbook vocab (dumb lists & worksheets)
* Grammar (lessons and more dumb worksheets).
* Project based learning
And once it’s all squeezed in, how on earth to make it have depth and not just skimming it all to just get it in.
Whew! I’m tired. Did someone say summer vacation!!?? 😉
Ditto here! Exact same issues with the 8th graders. They just want to memorize and take notes. I haven’t given up, I make them perform skits and then integrate tprs style questions to the class after they have completed their skit. If the class doesn’t understand the questions I have the group perform the skit again. I am planning on
Assigning groups for the final review. Each group will be assigned a theme or grammar lesson, they will then have to plan out a lesson for the class and reteach it. They can use PowerPoint, videos, music, songs etc. hoping this will spark some interest, only rule is no workbook pages 😉
I absolutely LOVE this idea!! I just spent hours trying to figure out what I’d do for a review, and Jaqui, you have inspired me!
Thanks so much for the motivation to refresh my resources. There is no time like the present!
I love the idea of using “Realia” in the language classroom. In our digital world, finding visuals for a Powerpoint is the norm, but for those teachers who have traveled, dig through your own authentic resources and bring them in for “Show and Tell”. Find an actual train schedule, passport, menu, nutrition chart, brochure etc. for the kids to see. They will appreciate being able to hold it in their hands and experience these items on their own way.